A Blessing day for two

Merry Christmas Eve my friends! Tonight we will be having a Bethlehem dinner on the floor with family to remember the birth of our Savior. The children will reenact the nativity story while it's read as well. I'm so excited!

We are so lucky to be surrounded by family this time of the year! And I'm lucky to have people be around to help watch children so I can stay caught up on my blogging!

As always I wrote this a few days ago and had time to add the pictures today, enjoy the boys' blessing day! I'll update this post with better individual pictures of the boys this coming Sunday too since we forgot to get those!

As luck would have it, tho Christmas season Casey's family was willing to come down to visit Cody's family for Christmas in Arizona which meant we could visit both families for Christmas in one state without much traveling, WAHOO! This also presented a most wonderful situation to bless the babies so BOTH our families could be around! I love great situations like that.

There was only 1 Sunday where the Cutlers would be in town so that was going to be the designated Sunday for the blessing. We really have no "home ward" persay here in Arizona. Blessing the babies in my siblings ward seemed strange since we know no one there. And I don't know anyone in my parent's home ward since they've moved. BUT my mom and dad don't even go to their "home ward" since he's actually the bishop of a Young Single Adult ward in Arizona, so the YSA ward it was!!!! It almost seemed strange to do it in that ward but it actually totally didn't. We always go the YSA ward when we visit Arizona so we recognize faces and they us (when you're the only one who comes with a child, people recognize you). With a lot of my siblings there, all of Casey's family there, and my dad on the stand it just seemed right and special.

We amazingly enough were 15-20 minutes early, I was really impressed with us. It was pretty stressful getting out the door though. We definitely had all 3 kids screaming at the same time which is always fun. We did have Casey's brother Derek helping us the whole time which was so wonderful, I honestly don't know how we'll do it on our own at home.

The blessings were beautiful. As I looked up during the first blessing my heart was filled with gratitude and happiness as I saw that one of our little boys was surrounded by a bunch of the men in our family who love them. Each boy was blessed with unique traits and abilities, it was so fun to listen to them both. Bryson was first and yelped out at the end of his blessing but it was actually really cute. Quinn was just happy to be bounced during his blessing. Both boys were beyond ready to eat after their blessings though ha.

It just felt so special to be surrounded by so much family on such a special day for our boys. I don't even think I held either baby at church since there were so many ready and willing hands to snuggle them (my brother Kirk is the new baby whisperer, I was thoroughly impressed). Casey and I mainly focused on the tazmaniun devil aka Maxson, who was pointing to papa on the stand loudly saying his name the whole time or loudly pointing out the babies during their blessing. One funny part was when max was pointing out the babies in between their blessings our niece, Brielle, was loudly disagreeing with him "no Max, no babies!" it was comical.

We took pictures after church with Maxson trying to constantly run away down the church building and followed it with a little luncheon by my mom at her hues with the family. It really was all such a wonderful day to be surrounded by so much family. These boys are already quite the loved duo, I can't wait for them to get to know these great people in their lives.

 Max on the run…always on the run

 Blair and Logan's family

 Cody and Camille's family.

Kirk and Whitney's pretend family.

 We were excited to eat the huge chocolate cake from Costco at the luncheon!

 I love this picture, all the hands helping ha

 Our three little boys.

Thank you to all our dear family for sacrificing their time to come and be with us, it meant so much!

Max's blessing day here

faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamily aka I finally get to breathe/nap sometimes and people will help hold babies.

The first couple of days in Arizona were spent at my parent's house just to recuperate and breathe and catch up on sleep. We did so much enjoy playing outside with Max though, he loved it too. The first picture is Max living his life as close to the edge as possible on those sidewalks that kindly curve down towards the street...

Finding a box of cars at Granny's house was an ultimate prize.

Cousins came over to play (bless my SIL Blair for always brining over heir kids to visit us all the time when we visit). And everyone began meeting the twins and holding and loving on them. It meant so much that everyone made us feel so special and loved.

These 3 girls can't get enough of baby holding. They're always coming up to me asking if they can hold a baby, ha, I love it. If I could I'd take them back with me and pay them $1 an hour to come play at my house entertaining/babysitting Maxson and holding babies!

A wild game of duck duck goose. I think that was Max's first time playing. He'd get up and run around the circle anytime someone else did, it was quite entertaining.

The end of our first full day in Arizona.

The airplane ride to Arizona

Getting to Arizona was quite the EXCURSION and EFFORT. Holy cow. 

It really wasn't until the day before we left that I truly hunkered down to get us packed and going. It's honestly because for at least me, the babies, and Max we really go through the same few clothes so we needed to wait until the last minute to do laundry and then pack up all the clothes!

I'm a chronic overpacker, it's awful. So for the babies I pretty much brought all their clothes, bibs, blankets, burp rags and anything else I could think of it. They spit up so much that everything tends to get wet fast and we still are doing laundry really often so all of it just came with us. Casey and I personally super under packed more than we ever have before, I was so impressed with us. But there was so much random stuff we had to bring and then a couple Christmas presents for Max, it all just adds up so much!!! Here's some pictures of our journey. I'm for sure going to write a post on traveling with 3 under 3 on an airplane at Christmas time.

1. This is often how we coax Maxson into brushing his teeth without screaming, he gets to brush ours.

2. My huge twin nursing pillow took up WAYYYY too much space in any suitcase, it was just a little ridiculous. Casey joked that he would bring it as his carry on neck pillow. Hardy har har. 

1. We would soon find out how much these "meemoz" would be the most wonderful bribing tool for Maxson. Bless those fruit snacks. 

2. The babies DID NOT do enough of this on packing day, grr.

At the airport!!!!!! Bless the un-business and simplicity of the Omaha airport. Seriously. No lines anywhere. Just getting out of the car into the airport was a workout. The closer and closer we got to the airport the more stressed I was getting. I just knew that no matter how much we prepared, it was going to be hard. We also planned to be there 1.5 hours early and because we of course left late it was only an hour and 10 minutes. That added to my stress. We decided to not take the baby's car seats and borrow my siblings' ones instead. That did add to making the airport journey easier but at the same time harder getting the wraps correct on each of us and the babies from the car seats onto us when it was chilly outside.

Getting through security could have been worse. As soon as Maxson was out of the stroller at security he tried belting it through so many times, ha. That child was so excited to RUN! And with a baby strapped to you, it's a little more comical running after him. He was pretty happy about seeing airplanes out the window but then once he saw people entering the plane he wanted to join them RIGHT then…luckily Casey had to be the goalie on that one and I just guarded our stuff (so as not to scare employees with the possible bomb in the unattended luggage).

You can't imagine the stares we received in the airport. And faces amazement once they realized we had TWO babies strapped to us and a crazy (at times crying) toddler in our stroller. We got "you guys be crazy" looks like crazy and a few kind comments from strangers which meant a lot.

Here we are waiting to board. Casey had taken Max out of the stroller so he could get some wiggles out but ended up holding him so he wouldn't run away. At one point Max began patting Quinn on the back like he always sees us doing when we burp them and kissing the side of his face. Seriously, so cute and was one of those "this makes parenting worth it" moments.

We sat in the VERY back of the plane, the last 2 rows. We couldn't sit in the same row since there were 2 lap children. The babies really did do just fine. They cried out here and there like normal but nothing we couldn't not soothe. We switched babies back and forth throughout the flight. We did a combo of nursing and bottle feeding. We only had 1 super smelly poopy diaper. Max played on the iPad pretty much the whole time or ate a plethora of snacks. There was 1 open seat on the whole plane and luckily we got it! And seriously it was necessary. Casey did amazing taking care of a baby and Maxson's needs simultaneously while I kept us organized with the seat behind them handing them food and drinks and toys and doing diapers and bottles etc. That open seat next to us was golden. Bless the 2 men who sat in our rows. The man in my aisle was the sweetest English man and had 2 beers (one on the house) and was just so kind. And I heard the man in Casey's row just got his personal space invaded like crazy by Maxson. The Southwest flight crew could not have been more AMAZING. At one point they took Max with them up and down the aisle to collect trash. They helped hold babies, gave us extra snacks and were just so optimistic and happy we were on the flight, it made us feel so good. I will forever be a loyal Southwest customer.

And finally making it OFF the plane back to our luggage! Once the plane landed it was like a huge relief, we made it through the plane ride! What made the plane so hard was that there was 3 tiny children who needed your constant care and watch and attention (two of which should have slept much longer than they did) and only 2 of us to appease their needs AND doing it all in this tiny area where you could barely move. Like I said, there were no huge horrible instances that made it a bad experience, we just have very busy lives that I'm still getting used to. We picked up our 4 checked bags, with babies strapped to our fronts, huge back packs on our backs, Maxson in his stroller and another bag strapped to the stroller and trudged our way to the curb to await my momma.

The first thing we said to my mom when I saw her was "Next time you come to us"

**The day we traveled to Arizona, Casey was running on 2 hours of sleep from staying up to study for a final that morning and I had 4-5 hours under my belt due to a rough night with the kids. I think those factors did us in too**

This and that

Casey is constantly falling asleep while holding babies that also tend to fall asleep on him. I wish he were around all day to put that magic spell on the babies more often. Or I just wish I had the magical ability to put babies to sleep faster…and fall asleep fast myself. Instead if a baby falls asleep on me these days I think ok I need to transition this baby off of me seamlessly so he'll stay asleep because I need to get this and this and this and this done before he wakes up!

 Cute babies waking up! V for victory!!!!

A few of my friends at a joint baby shower for Katie and Kylie Christopherson. I hadn't been around all my friends like that in forever. It was so much fun. We had a daytime/playdate shower where the kids came too and we had pizza. It was kinda crazy with all the children and moms and equally awesome at the same time. What an awesome stage I'm at in my life. All these great girls I'm surrounded by having lots of babies too, we all stay at home (a couple of them work nights) and we can all get together in friends' tiny houses and be ok with children running wild. I love my friends so much. I think I counted 25 children there and that was with some of the moms leaving theirs at home! 

 Crazy days where I'm a mess all day surviving. I hate bottle feeding, ha. It takes forever, it's messy, your hands are occupied, they spit up more, formula smells, blah I could go on. But at the same time I'm grateful my babies take formula and bottles a-ok and there is such a thing as nutritious formula because I can't quite produce enough milk on my own to sustain them both! Yes we are breastfeeding and bottle feeding. I'm probably making enough for 1 1/2 babies so we supplement throughout the day as needed with formula after I nurse them. Oh how I wish I could solely just breastfeed, so much easier!!!!

 Visiting ducks with Granny. 

Headed to bed.

We took a trip to Trader Joe's and holy cow Maxson was obsessed with the little cart! He was adorable pushing it around the whole time so determined to go all around the store and pick up what he wanted to put in his cart, it was so adorable. Adorable until we had to leave the store and he threw the biggest tantrum ever. While trying to rip his hands away from the cart's bar, he began his screaming. I carried him screaming out of the store, he writhed out of my arms in the idle of the where all the cars drive blah blah blah. It was fun. The screaming ensued for about 20 minutes, I kid you not. Still a cute cart?

 Took Maxson to Target one night to purely entertain him, no buying anything, no plans, just following Max around. He had tons of fun. He pushed the buttons on the music sample section a million times to listen Frozen over and over and over. then he'd sing along with Let it go over a milling times over. It was so darn cute and the other shoppers loved the entertainment. He found another small cart to push around, luckily there was no scream fest that ensued.

 a.  Casey. Video games. Sleeping babies. Life

b. Debating on what I should do with my spare time.

c. Blessed Katie surprised me one day and came over with her girls one day. The little girls played with Maxson and Katie helped hold babies, twas a great afternoon

d. Playing  with his new dentist play dough set. It only took an hour or so to make all the colors jumbled into one

I hate getting pictures like this from Casey, ha. He loves to spoil Max and let him try soda when out and about. This time around it was at another little 2 year old's birthday party when I was texted this...

My vacuuming buddy.

Life. I can't remember what was so funny about this picture when Casey took it but I was laughing really hard, maybe because I purposely sat so far away from the rest of the children for a break...

Going places with babies takes EFFORT.

Silly Maxson.

Lastly, I told my instagram followers that I feel like I'm dripping in babies. Sometimes they're always all over me. And Max is often next to me playing on the iPad so he's not making a bigger mess somewhere else.

So he's TWO!

Here's a few fun little facts about Mr. Maximus now that's he's TWO!

-About a month of or so before his 2nd birthday his parroting skills began to bloom a lot more. Instead f just grunting trying to repeat us he actually does try to say the words, it's been super fun.

-Of course since I'm the mom I can understand what he's saying a lot more easily than others. But even then sometimes I'm not quite sure on some words, ha, but he's trying SO hard!

-He's begun to get much more opinionated on things like which color spoon he's using, what kind of spoon, which cup to use. Clothes he doesn't have an opinion about at all though

-He loves baths, he'd take 1 every hour if he could I think.

-Loves tractors, bikes, cars

-Loves the babies. Gets about 1 inch close to their face awake or asleep and loudly say "HIYYY! Hi bebe! Hiyyyyyyyy! Bebe! Beeeebeeee!

-Can be surprisingly obedient at times and intensely disobedience at times

-Was stellar at transitioning from his crib to toddler bed. We never once had to go put him back in his bed he would always go back to it to fall asleep. That doesn't mean he doesn't make a mess of his room at times and get up and play everywhere.

-Maxson is still obsessed with technology. More often than not if I ask him what he wants to do he smiles and says "Ipaaaaa!" He gets ahold of our phones all the time and is constantly face timing and calling people at random times. I think the grandparents might think it's cute but everyone not so much. Sorry everyone else. Casey sent Max a picture while he was studying. The humorous part of it is that when you FaceTime Max and if he's holding it this is the view you will see, so Casey tried to reenact it for him. I let Max take a picture of himself and send it back. It provided quite the comedic moment.

-Speaking of sleep he's pretty awesomely consistent these days: good 2-3 hour nap every afternoon and pretty much never fights me. Night time he knows how to really eloooooooongate the going to bed process but is pretty awesome about always staying asleep and sleeping 11-12 hours every night. Lately we've been putting him to bed pretty late, between 8:30-9:30 but my doing so he doesn't usually wake up until 9 (one morning was 10!) so no complaints over here!

-Loves to sing. Sing along to Disney songs, nursery songs, hymns at church, Frozen, going to bed songs, it's just super cute. He usually catches on to the last word of a phrase.

Stats:
height: 37 1/2 in -> greater than 97%ile
weight: 32.8 pounds ->96%ile
head: 19 5/8 in -> 76%ile

There's so much more I'd like to write about him but my brain is fried.

He's super cute.

The end

A couple Christmas outings

WE MADE IT TO ARIZONA!!! Holy cow that was the most stressed, traumatic, painful, eventful, crazy trip/plane ride ever. We survived and are here though, so absolutely insane! More on that craziness later. For now I have a couple posts I've been working on in the past little bit while I mustered sometime here and there I'll finish them up and post them over the next few days. Here's one!

So the hospital I gave birth at does an annual Miracle on 70th street event each year (the hospital is on 70th street). Our first year here Max was born on the day of the event! The second year it was not even on my radar to go. And here we are with our third year and we went ahead and braved it with our newborns! We figured we wouldn't know anyone there therefore no one would ask to look at the babies and they wouldn't get sick.

They had a little breakfast which included fountains of wretched juice and huge cupcakes for nutrition, ha. They had a little craft making section, a music room, Santa visit, Mrs Clause reading books, real reindeer outside, and booths of local doctors, dentists, pediatricians to acquire new patients and giving out swag. It was really fun and I'm glad we went (Maxson was honestly enthused over little of it). As always the babies shocked me and didn't make a peep the whole time. Maybe I should bring them places more often ha. 

We drove around to look at lights one night. Didn't quite find any super spectacular houses but anything even small caught Maxson's attention and he oohed and ached over it asking for "mowr mowr?"

Bryson

Not exactly a Christmas outing but the matching bibs seemed like they belonged in this post.

QB

It's been fun slow Christmas season for us!