GOING HOME DAY!

The night before we were all to be discharged Casey texted me this picture. It got me so excited! We were officially ready to be bringing the twins home! Car seat bases in, middle seat taken out, and Maxson's seat moved to the back (I think once visitors leave we'll see if we can fit Max in between the twins.)

We were to be discharged the morning of Halloween! I was so giddy. Woke up pretty early (a half hour before their feeding) and got the room and all our stuff all ready to go! The nurses brought in these sweet Halloween gifts to us.

The carseats sat there waiting for bbies to be placed in them for what seemed like forever!

The Parents NICU group (alumni members) make costumes for all the NICU babies. Sweetest gesture ever! It really just made my heart so happy that they'd have Halloween costumes! Two cute little M&M's.

We were discharged right when Casey arrived and we piled those boys in their carseats! So tiny!

 Casey and I were so excited to take them downstairs and introduce them to Maxson!

When we pushed the stroller out of the elevator, Max came a running over so interested in what we were pushing. He immediately peaked his head into the lower car seat, picked up the blanket and with an intrigued smile on his face kept saying "babies, babies?" He looked at us questioningly and then went to peak at the other brother. He went back and forth between carseats doing the same thing over and over. He seemed so very happy!

 As soon as we began pushing the stroller he was all over in helping with that, he loves pushing any and all stroller pushing.

 First family picture of 5! Notice Maxson is still so very interested in the babies.

 Once we brought everyone inside Max decided it was all his business to keep pushing the pacifiers in the babies' mouths. Ha, he still loves to do that over and over, and taking them out of their mouths too ha.

 We immediately asked if he wanted to hold the babies. He got a big twinkle in his eye and starred at us while he grunted (his version of yes, ha). He jumped onto the couch for us, reached his arms out and asked for "babies!" As soon as we placed one baby in his arms, he pointed to the other saying he wanted that one too, ha. He still always does that, points to the second baby as soon as the first has been placed in his arms. My heart wanted to EXPLODE with fireworks and confetti watching him interact with our new babies. I was on cloud 10199347. Pure bliss.

 And then our first attempts at an ok family picture of 5, funny experience. I realize the circus has only just begun.

 When we brought Bryson and Quinn home we had them give a present to Maxson. It was meant to be an entertaining gift for him while he came to the hospital to visit us all but that didn't really work out. He didn't know or care though so it's ok. He opened a remote control race car. He'd been obsessed with our neighbor's one for months so I knew this was the perfect gift. Boy was I right. We then had Maxson in return give the babies their BYU stuffed animals. I was/still am impressed that Maxson so eagerly gives the animals to them and doesn't try to hoard them to himself, haha. As you can see he was more than happy to keep giving them to the babies.

our trip to wyoming

after an hour in the car on the way to wyoming i made the biggest gasp ever and realized i had forgotten my big nice camera at home. i was devastated. i'd never done that before. so our wyoming trip has only the phone pictures :( at least we still had a camera to use, right?

a. entertaining himself while i packed up, eh whatever works
b. on the road AGAIN, grr
c. beautiful wyoming sunset (not seen are the 100's of tumble weeds pummeling our car, it literally felt like a video game of the desire to dodge objects while driving)
d. awful wyoming weather: snow :(

a. trying to teach maxson to clean up his own messes, this time i think he dumped over a plant?
b. snuggly baby
c. grandpa shared popcorn with maxson and he was obsessed
d. for mother's day nan took us to get pedicures, it was wonderful and so much fun (and casey joined in too…ha)

a. endless bath times in grammy and grandpa's tub, that place is his absolute favorite i think
b. it snowed all day mother's day
c. casey with his momma on mother's day
d. a new toy obsession.

a. & b. library time
c. karlee brought snow in for maxson to play with
d. piano practicing with karlee

a.-d. maxons's first soft serve ice cream for FHE, hilarious

a.-d. more soft serve

mother's day was very sweet this year. we were in wyoming with casey's family. maxson woke up at 5:30, somehow he didn't get the memo it was mother's day??!?!?!!?! but luckily casey did, and got up with him, that angel. once i did wake up i came down stairs to that husband of mine flipping pancakes while holding my big baby maxson on his hip. #swoon. next to him was my father in law preparing a wonderful sunday meal with the whole shebang.

church was sweet and we were able to listen to the wonderful speakers since family was around to help entertain/corral maxson. one talk was on the important role the parents play in the tree of life vision found in 1st Nephi and i learned so many new insights. maxson went to the last hour of nursery while the young women were in there since his younger sister would be in there helping. the women of the ward were squished in the relief society room while we hear inspiring, uplifting words from the bishop. i could feel the power and energy of all the women around me at all stages of life. knowing that i am just barely at the beginning on the rope of motherhood is both daunting and exciting. the lesson was finished with M&M cookies to eat. my MIL could also tell i was very uncomfortable sitting in the chair and because scratching/tickling/rubbing my back, again what a great mother's day present. that hasn't happened in years!

once home i was able to call my mom to wish here a happy mother's day. oh it was so good to talk to her. 

dinner tasted wonderful, how and why does food taste so much better when you haven't prepared it, is that just me? for the first time in a long time, mashed potatoes just tasted so dang good. i could not get enough of them.

i don't remember the rest of the day but i do remember being around that wonderful cutler family, feeling loved, feeling their love, and trying to express my love to the different mothers all round me.

BAHAMA BUCKS loving

with this trip to bahama bucks we knew we wanted to get baby maxson to try it out!
the first time we went he was asleep the whole time, so we'll count this as his first REAL bahama bucks experience.
he could have cared less about the whole excursion but we loved taking him there with the little girls.
annalee and phoebe always look forward to going to bahama bucks when we come to town, it's the fun thing they get to do specially because of us.

but here's maxson's first little taste of the goodness!
i believe i let him taste watermelon.
if you can't see the video on the blog, go here to watch it on vimeo

Maxson's 1st bahama bucks

teehee, we thought it was funny :)

a. doesn't casey look natural with 3 kids?

b. maxson can't decide which color he wants...

c. blue is the best because it leaves lots of great stains all over children's teeth, tongues, mouth, and clothes. i.e.: phoebe

d. not so sure about the cold stuff.

a. sample cups holding over the chillins
b. bahama bucksing
c. a taste here, a taste there
d. on the way home, casey squished himself between 2 carseats in the back of the mini van to keep maxson happy while entertaining phoebe and annalee, he's a keeper

we love you bahama bucks!

baseball and baby bumps.

so technically, it was softball.

but last weekend the stake had a coed softball tournament.

casey was super pumped for it.

(let's be honest, anything sports, casey is pumped for.

still can't believe i married someone who's so in love with sports).

so, the tournament.

they won 1, lost 1, and the other team forfeited 1 (but they still played a practice game during the hour).

it rained during 1 1/2 games.
rain is so annoying when watching a game.

luckily it did not rain during lunch.

the brilliant woman in charge of lunch organized only hot dogs to be served.

it was A MILLION times easier for the set up and options.

seriously, so wise.

i tried watching a few kids during the games while their parents played.

they pretty much all got hurt on the bleachers at some point but whatevs...

the people from the ward who did come play were awesome and made it tons of fun.

can't wait til next year when i can play!

i use the term play very loosely because i will in actuality be little to no help to the team plus we'll have a 9 month old not to watch...
(that sentence seems SO CRAZY!!!!!)

we shall see.

and to top it off, here i was that day.

26 weeks plus a few.
(i feel like i've been in the 20's FOREVER)

white maternity shirt- courtesy of goodwill. i love those scrunched side shirts, they're my favorite. i have 1 :(

red nebraska cornhusker sweat pants- courtesy of nebraska

blue BYU flip flops- courtesy of where my true love to football will forever live.
(i think the 2nd pic i'm looking at the children across the street, but it was the most in focus picture of the batch...)

 
can you spy a belly button that is beginning to pop out?
i need to remember to tuck my bum under during pictures because i feel like it makes me look way bigger than i am.
i just am trying to remember to tell myself i'm grateful i do look pregnant and not just like i always eat big lunches.
plus, i'm short, i have no where to hide this boy.

kicking has yet again exponentially increased this week.
if my computer is resting slightly on my stomach he can kick it major so it jerks.
kicks have been so forceful lately!
sometimes it really hurts!

we got a crib this week, YAY!
now just to set it up.
it's fun slowly getting little baby things over time.
gives me moments of great excitement!
now i just need my majillion dollar rocking chair, right, casey!?

and sidenote-
casey has officially finished his first week of dental school, yahoo!
he comes home for lunch everyday for an hour (which i love).
he got to play practice with a drill twice last week.
he's been overloaded with anatomy class.
everybody continues to tell him how terrible the first year is, how fun :)

first day

casey left this morning for his first day of school!

it's not the official first day, (just orientation) but it seemed official to me.

he woke up early,

as did i, to iron his shirt (pat on the back for the good wife because that's not going to be happening for long at all...)

it was a pretty casual occasion except that he was leaving for school!
and crazy enough, this was the first time i wasn't going to school.
now that part was awesome.
 

he's the best sport ever.

a few days ago we were driving to a 1st year dental school student get together and we were talking how school was starting this week for him!

i got so excited and was telling him how i was going to take pictures and he was like "ok!"

i love that man.

so pictures were taken as he walked out the door and off into the street to campus (less than 5 little blocks away)

 
can't believe dental school is here.
IT"S HERE!!!!!
at this time last year we were setting up his interviews at all the different universities and we couldn't believe that part was starting.
we're now just THRILLED to be here at the beginning of these 4 years in NEBRASKA out of all schools.
we live crazy close to campus.
we have awesome neighbors.
an awesome ward.
a really great school (with a small class size which rocks).
it's just all so wonderful.
the Lord has blessed us so much and we are beyond grateful for His tender mercies in our lives.

here's to 4 years of dental school!!!!!! 

the little blue house

we did it!we did it!

we officially rented our first apartment

it's just perfect for us and fits all our needs

we are so excited for it

only 6 more weeks and then we get to live in it,

yay!

these last pictures are of casey leaf hunting for me.
fall colored leaves are just so lovely!
he was so sweet to climb up all 42 trees that i wanted him to
so we could have thee perfect leaves

1 YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just wanted to state that it has been officially over a year since Kimber and I went on our first date. It started with BYU football and conference. It was so wonderful to be able to go to conference yet again with my sweet Kimber. It has become quite the tradition and I don't know what we will do once my Dad can't get the tickets anymore. Haha I guess we will see what happens when that comes around. But we loved Conference and there were so many talks that touched our hearts. Life is great and we only have a month and a half til we get MARRIED!!!!! Yay! Not only are we so close to being husband and wife, but we have had a lot of fun activities with family and each other. We went to Kimber's opening dance social, where we ate dinner and played some games. My favorite part had to be the food, but also, this little picture because I am totally dressed up like a sailor and I think that it is hilarious with my outfit! Something I am so grateful for is that Kimber is so wonderful in making dinner for us most nights. It is so nice to have home cooked meals! She is just so wonderful and we love the time being able to eat and talk at the end of each day.

We were both young

So this is a tribute to our first meeting together.
First date.
First conversation.
My first thoughts of "I'm going on a mission, this is just a date"
His first thoughts of "she has potential"
Oh we were young


We are still young...
Here we are this last weekend up in Wyoming!
5 months down.
2 1/2 to go!


The fun continues...

Happy new week!

First Day

Well, we've done it...

We've stepped into the world of blogging!

We're so happy to be on our journey!