Little happy things

One great thing about our backyard is the fire pit! The boys have loved it whenever we do a fire. They are so great around the fire and they have so much fun. They all eat WAYYYYYY too many marshmallows, everyone is ridiculously sticky, and then the laundry because of the smoke, buuuuuuuuuut it's worth ti. 

 See all the crying faces, this happens lots while we are out there, lots of tears amidst the fun.

 I kinda hate waking up before the sun is up, but I sure do like seeing beautiful sunrises through my kitchen window! Makes the mornings a little more worth it!

 When all 3 boys get along (for literally like 1 minute before someone starts crying) but it's cute when it lasts! Max was reading them books here.

The end :)

A birthday fit for two 2 year olds!

The twinsies turned 2!

I love my kids birthdays, I really do. Casey and I spent the night before making all the preparations for it. Wrapping presents, putting up decorations, putting out birthday plates, blowing up balloons. We knew they'd love it when they woke up.

So they woke up to balloons and and lots of decorations. When they came down the stairs you saw them look around in awe like "what in the world is this!?" Their grumpy attitudes turned into magical excitement instead, I love love loved watching them experience it all.

We let them open the majority of their presents right in the morning while Casey was home. It was adorable as soon as they woke up Max was so excited to tell them "babies! babies! I made you pway-dough! PWAY-DOUGH!" He couldn't wait to have them open those bad boys. (The day before he and I made homemade play dough for him to give to the babies, he was so excited to do so). That was the first gift they opened. They also got mittens, coloring book and markers (they love markers so I did but of course quickly regretted it because they color on everything except paper, ugh, just that morning was the ground, the wall, the window, the vent, 2 new toys they got, and their legs. The markers were quickly taken away, ha). a book, an electronic toy, a push toy (either a wheel barrel or a push popper).

I didn't want to have to buy 2 of the exact same thing of every toy (waste of money!) so I bought two different toys that had similar ideas in hopes that would satisfy everyone. Nope, still lots of fighting, and then max needed to be in the middle of the fighting over new toys as well, ooy. A twins birthday kind of feels like Christmas except one kids is left out and it is sad.

Max wanted so bad to open/help the babies open all their presents. It was so hard for him to back off. They didn't mind too much.

I was going to make the twins a fun sprinkle infested pancake breakfast but they saw Casey eating some delicious cereal and wanted that instead. Instead of fighting them and trying harder than necessary they got a delicious bowl of golden graham cereal :)

We played with their toys the rest of the morning and jumped on the tramp in the leaves. After that we were al hungry again so that is when I made intensely green sprinkled pancakes that everyone ate a ton of. Twas yummy.

Soon after Casey came home we opened up presents my parents had sent: a sweet rocket shooter thing and a barn with animals to go with it. They played with these toys for a long long time and then took a nice nap :)

In the afternoon when they woke up they continued to play with toys but at 5 we were to meet with a real estate agent to look at a house. Brad came with us and we had the kids buckled up in the car but Karlee came instead and drove them to Green River where they went to McDonalds with Grammie Cutler and then played at her house for a little bit.

After looking at the house we all met at the Green River high school football game! It was so fun. The kids loved the band, each got these little pink footballs, and adored sitting on their grandparents' laps. Seriously they sat on their laps the entire time they were at the game, it was so strange. Not sure if it was because they were cold or they just really loved the game and their grandparents, haha. It was a really fun football game to be at and it was a great way to celebrate Quinn and Bryson's birthdays!

The next day the Cutlers came to the house where we sang happy birthday again and they finally got to blow out candles and eat their cakes! They were so excited for their cakes! They were so HILARIOUS during the birthday song: Quinn was smiling and laughing yelling no at us all, he was reveling in it all. Bryson on the other hand was so shy the whole time, his head buried into his shoulder looking away from everyone with a pouty face, he ended up holding Derek's hand. It was so adorably cute to see the difference between them too.  They opened up their birthday presents from the Cutlers: a church bag with snacks and some cars, a book, and some little animals. They've really been loving their little bags to put stuff in and take around the house.

 They were so very excited to eat the M&M's on that one cake!

 The difference in these 2 faces kill me.

THEN we all went to the Rock Springs rec center to go swimming! It was yet again another fun special activity to do to celebrate the babies birthday that I knew they'd love. They didn't love going down the slide this time around even with more adults but they still loved the water, especially the warm water areas, haha. It's so nice to go swimming with more adults than just the two of us, ha.



Bryson is just the sweetest little boy. He has these dimples on his cheek and when he's doing something mischievous and trying to hide it from you and he tried suppressing his smile and his dimple come out so much. I melt at so many cute little face he makes. He is obsessed with his teddy bear which he calls his "nigh nigh". He also LOVEs hammers, loves them so much, ha, always wants to go to bed with a hammer and his phone. He's always begging to be held "hold you, hold you!" He's the instigator of loud happy-yell-screaming-singing-chanting sessions when they walk around with scriptures or stand on the little ride around cars doing it. He's such a great dinner time eater, eats almost all of his food always and usually asks for more. He's definitely the more attached to me of the two (Quinn still is a lot) but Bryson gets really sad and offended if I'm leaving somewhere, ha. He is fabulous at saying no. Says no to like everything I swear "how old are you?" "no!" "what's your name?" "no!" etc etc. Also he's the kind at "uh uh" as a way of saying "no"  but always his with his mouth closed. He's our dancer, he busts a move every time music turns on, super adorable. He likes blankets and he likes to cuddle at random times of the day if I'm laying down. If he wakes up in the middle of the night he's the one that starts the laughter between the two making neither of them fall asleep again, naughty one. Bryson is hilarious and I love him so so much!

Quinn is a sweetie as well. He has this big cheesy smile is too funny. He's speech is very precise and he can explain himself really well when he wants to be heard. The other day we heard him tell Bryson "don't drink that!" as well "no no baby!" He's hilarious at times. He has adopted a second stuffed animal we have that he has to go to bed with. He also insists on a hammer for bed but wants a phone even more which we give him. He's usually the first to run up to Casey to excitedly say hi when he gets home from work. He is OBSESSED with milk, like he would seriously drink it all day long if we let him. As soon as he wakes up and sees us he says "milt!!!!!! MILT!" and he gets impatient QUICKLY, haha. He's great at eating breakfast usually stealing everyone else's bowls when they're not being eaten. He poops all day long, not quite a personality trait that he can control, but something to be noted because seriously! He eats the same food as everyone else but something else goes on inside him! He does not like blankets on him, that is a no. If I say we're going somewhere he's adamant that we go now and will not stop reminding you that we're supposed to be going somewhere, ha. I love our little Quinny so so much and cannot imagine life without him!

Happy 2nd birthday to my sweet identical twin boys, Bry Bry and Quinny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A quick trip to the pumpkin patch!

Casey was going to a BYU football game one Friday night so I and the kids hitched a ride down to Utah with him so we could go to a pumpkin patch!

The kids were awful in the car, not going to lie. That's life.

It was a late game so we left right after Casey got home from work, 5, and then booked it to Provo to drop him off at the game where he met his dad. They have season tickets to the games this year. Poor Bryson must have gotten car sick and threw up around Heber, poor boy.

I got to Weston and Amanda's house around 8:45 where Max and Bryson were alseep. I dragged my 7 1/2 month pregnant body up and down the stairs so many times taking up sleeping kids and sleeping items with Quinn crying behind me because I wasn't holding him and it was a new place and he wasn't so sure about the surroundings, ha. His crying eventually woke up and Bryson unfortunately and I then had two cranky mischievous babies with me for the next hour until they were ready to go to bed again. Poor Weston and Amanda, I bet their stress levels were high because my kids compared to theirs are just two different levels of chaos, lol. I ended up having to sleep on the ground with them until they fell asleep at 10:15 pm.

Casey got him from a LATE double overtime BYU game at 1:30, they won, yay! In the morning we played with Abby, Britton, and Ella. Max LOVED playing with Britton, just adored him. My twins tormented their dog. we walked to the park behind their house with all the kids and played for awhile, jumped on the tramp, Weston made pancakes, and we just had a nice time with those sweet nieces and nephew and our kids!

We quickly packed up and headed to a small pumpkin patch right there in Springville! It was perfectly small for our group of little kids. Weston and Amanda met us there with their kids too! They loved the slide the most going up and and over and over again. I personally loved the huge corn pit the most. They climbed up large bales of hay, saw a little petting zoo, Max got lost in the huge corn maze for a few minutes because he ran off, oh goodness. We went on a tractor ride through their pumpkin field and a little of the cornfield too. Max picked out a white pumpkin and we called it a morning! Nice and sweet! Plus since our kids woke up so early we really needed to get them back in the car to drive back to Wyoming so they's actually sleep the whole time! But really we had the best time!

 So funny these two went down together and bryson face planted and got a face full of corn lol

It was a fun little morning and quick trip to Utah but it was fun to see family and do all the fun pumpkin patch stuff!

BYU-Utah game

We had quite the fun family evening watching the BYU-Utah game together! The boys chanted BYU during it. threw the football back and forth to us, Max learned to catch the ball while running. We all got to eat yummy popcorn in the family room, did some fun screaming and yelling at the game. So proud of BYU and then again so mad at them. 

26 weeks with numero 4

At 26 weeks I'm beginning to feel the feels of pregnancy. Harder for me to get off the couch, must use a body pillows to sleep with, not really into jumping on the tramp with Maxson. Maxson really wanted to race the other day at the park back to the car after saying no a few times and him begging a few times, I gave in and we raced, he definitely won and I was definitely trying.

I feel like this boy moves A LOT. I probably just don't have a great memory of the twins movement , I know it was a lot but that's what I expected, there were two in my belly there should be a ton of action. But this one is constant and everywhere. I've never had one so low at times nor so high either. I get contractions a lot. I don't know if it's more than my other pregnancies or the fact that I actually realize what contractions are this time around (rock hard belly). 

Maxson feels the baby kick a lot it's really sweet. 

and for fun here I am with the twins at 25/26/27 weeks, whewie! I definitely was  A LOT bigger with twins, lol, that makes me feel good. And here I am at 26 weeks with Maxson

the dearest of friends

I had a little video chat with these gals this week and my heart hurt after talking to them and my heart was also so full of joy after talking to them. We all moved away from Nebraska this summer after graduation and I miss everyone so much. These girls along with so many others were such a wonderful, supportive, caring, and genuine group of friends. I know I've said it before but I don't know if I'll ever have such an incredible group of girlfriends in my life again. We were pretty much all going through school (our husbands that is), no one was making money pretty much, we all became moms for the first time together, we all had similar goals, none of us had family around, and like I said the genuine-ness (is that a word?) of these girls was unparalleled (I'm talking about ALL you Nebraska girls!). There was never a competitive spirit of any form, no need to impress each other with any type of material things, gatherings were always thrown together at the last minute but everyone came and supported, there was ALWAYS someone ready and willing to throw in a helping hand. I miss them and that atmosphere oh so much.

I've been trying while here in Wyoming, I have but it's just different. Everyone's in different stages of life, there's not as much in common with whole family situations, people are just busier. I know it will get better in time, but right now I just miss all my friends.

Messes and cleaning

UMy house is bigger. Much bigger than the shoebox in Nebraska.

So yeah, it does get messy but the mess is spread out so it's honestly not as bad which makes it so much better. I can have a mountain of dishes next to the sink but the rest of the kitchen can still be clean and functional. It's incredible!

Someone posted on Facebook that they should use a rake to clean up a toy mess. And with me being pregnant and already hating to bend over and pick everything up i was like "YES. I am so doing this"

literally the pile I made the first day I did this, it was THAT bad, ha

I now have an indoor rake I use to clean up the upstairs family room and kitchen and it makes clean up so much easier. Then all I have to do is clean up one pile! So I can take all the shoes to the shoe closet at once. All the toys to the playroom at once. All the kitchen items that go in the sink to the sink at once. And it all gets done so much faster.

Bonus, when I'm feeling like there's too much to do and the kids will just make cleaning up worse we play the "M&M game". Essentially I give them a task or something to put away, they do it they get an M&M! And my lazy bum stays on the stairs the whole time. We all love it. You should try it.

As I've watched my children over the past few weeks I look at them make messes sometimes knowing and sometimes purposefully and I"m just like "Oh my gosh, that's all you guys do is make messes" In a matter of 5 minutes they can have 30+ items strewn over the kitchen and family room easily. The babies love trying on shoes and walking around the house with them, so just like that 5 new paris of shoes are all over the floor that no one even used! They pull down the kitchen towels on the oven just because they don't play with them, it's just something they can pull down so they do. I watched Max pull out 5 books off the kids bookshelf and just walk away. I've seen them put their hands on the counter and just start pulling random crap down in hopes that there might be something cool up there like markers or candy. I got a new chair cover for our rocking chair (bc it was HIDEOUSLY ravaged by spills stains and pen marks and could never be cleaned) the first week I put it on there were new permanent marker scribbles on the side, and then 2 weeks later someone added pen scribbles to it too. Thanks goodness I bought a machine washable one, not the absolute cutest but so much more realistic and functional for our family of savages. 

The messes continue everyday without slowing down.  There are so many more in my head but I'm too tired to write them, ha. The other day I started cry-whining to Casey while cleaning up that the twins NEVER STOP. They literally are like little tornadoes that just go from one place to the next without a break. It's exhausting cleaning up after them constantly but it's life and we're pushing forward.

I've found myself every time someone makes a mess I think in my head or sometimes even say out loud "I am patient, I am kind, I am loving" I have to remember these are just little kids still. The twins aren't even 2, Max not yet 4, they're just learning when they make a mess or break something it is NEVER to purposefully make you upset or mad, they're just learning not to be clumsy and results of their actions. A mess can just be cleaned up, really, not that big of a deal. Even Max is 1,000,000 times cleaner and more helpful than the twins. So in just 2 years the twins will be there as well!

I always feel like I need to vacuum our carpet, being whitish it shows everything. The kids love vacuuming, I hate that they love it because they make it last about 15 minutes longer than needed with crying to hold my vacuum, fighting over the kid vacuum, unplugging the vacuum, or just standing in front of me, ugh.

laundry forever

In an attempt to make my life more organized and cleaned but not feel like I get behind on tasks or wear myself out and do it all in one day I've made a cleaning schedule specifically to my family and home's needs. First I'm going to see how well it works (if I'm lacking in any areas around the house, if stuff needs to be done more often or not as often) and then hopefully I'll get around to making it cute on the computer and printing it out. I got the bones of my cleaning chart from littlegreennotebook but how I made my list was write down a list of things that needed to be done daily, weekly, monthly. The weekly ones I just started going through and assigning them to a random day trying to keep it even. Friday is when I rotate through the swing day list getting to each item once a month.

Apples for days

I bought 24 lbs each of peaches and apples last month from and Idaho group that brought them in through the church and THEY WERE SO GOOD. Seriously, the apples were some of the best I've ever had and the peaches were perfectly juicy and delicious. We were just so happy with them! We ate them both all day long as much as we could but before they went bad we made a few yummy things with them.

Ironically enough, the week before we got our apples Max and I did apple painting and he was so intrigued by the seeds inside. SO the over the next week or two whenever we cut apples he wanted to play with them

We tried our hand at applesauce for the first time which was really fun for everyone! Max was a great helper at peeling all the apples. It was the first year I bought and used one of those nifty apple peelers and it made life so easy, blessings, ha. The boys couldn't keep their hands off the apples when peeling them.

Didn't have any lemon juice to keep them from not turning brown but I read if you soak them in water with a little bit of salt that does the trick too and it did!

too many helping hands makes the work much messier ha

THESE are the delicious muffins I made that Max broke his arm because, ha. Seriously you need to try them. We call them apple pumpkin muffins and they are so dang delicious

1/2 C Flour (you can do wheat flour here, you really can't tell)
2 C Sugar
1 T pumpkin pie spice
1 t soda
1/2 salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 C pumpkin
1/2c vegetable oil
2 C peeled, finely chopped apples (about 2 apples)

STEUSEL TOPPING
2 T flour
1/2 C Sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
4  t softened butter, cut into dry ingredients

Directions: Combine first 5 ingredients in bowl. Set aside. Combine egg, pumpkin and vegetable oil. Add to dry ingredients. Stir in apples. fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Top with Stresuel topping. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes (I found it takes less, I'd start checking on them 20-25 minutes)

In just 1 hour we started with 24 and the 5 of us fatties were down to only 8. They're that good.


We also made apple sauce, candy apple pie (my favorite and way easier than regular pie), apple crisp (casey's favorite), and steel cut oats with apples in it too.

Honestly, I wish I had another 24 lbs to go through!