Easter Fun

Saturday was a happy day of Easter fun.  In the morning we still cleaned the house, but then we went to Toys R Us.  We let them pick out a toy to share and I picked a family game for an Easter present.  (the Hedbanz game)  The girls were very tired by the time we got home.  Kaylee was pretty upset, but she finally calmed down enough to eat and go to sleep.  We dyed eggs while the girls napped.  We also did some in the morning a new way.  When the eggs were still hot we put crayon shavings on them.  The wax melted and looked pretty cool. I swirled some around to try it that way.  Damon and Tyler got into the eggs more this year.  Tyler thought it was cool that you could make stripes and Damon had fun with the white crayon and different colored layers. 

 

When the girls woke up from naps we did our own Easter egg hunt in the back yard.  We haven't gone to an organized hunt for two years.  Too many kids to keep an eye on and timing of naps.  Maybe next year.  The girls caught on pretty well and had fun shaking the eggs.  Everyone ate all of their candy when we were done - it's a good thing I didn't give them very much. 

 Something new I did this year, I wrote a clue on a piece of paper then cut it up like a puzzle.  Then I put each piece in a green egg.  All the kids help find the green eggs then put the puzzle together to read the clue.  It said where their final present was.  It was a ladder-ball game for the family.  Everyone loved it and I think it will get a lot of use this year.  It's just the perfect size for our back yard.  I think I will do this type of hunt again next year.

Sunday morning we let the kids find their Easter baskets.  I try to keep the gifts and candy to a minimum and try to find a spiritual gift as well.  The dollar store helped us with hats, coloring books, water-guns, and bubble blowers.  I had found some things at Deseret Book to put in too.  Everyone found their baskets pretty well.  I had to do "hot and cold" with Tyler.  We hid Damon's too easily, he found it quickly.

 Yummy jelly beans!

 Off to church, this year it happened to be Stake Conference.  Of course the picture with the best smiles was the one with Chris' arm in the way, sigh.  We hopefully will decorate cookies this afternoon.

Happy Easter everyone.  We have watched a lot of the church videos about Easter and they are always so powerful.  I am so grateful for our Savior and all that He did in life.  I am grateful for the atonement and the reality of the resurrection.  He lives!

JCPenny Pictures

Alright, here are the JCPenny pictures.  You'll remember that I had the girls go together the first day with Chris, then I took Kaylee and Jenna separate.  The first day was rough for the girls as you can see, Jenna was so tired and grumpy.  I was glad I was going for a casual, morning look because that's what I got.  But the others turned out ok, enjoy:

Jenna- the chair is what they are getting for their birthday. 

Kaylee

Christopher 4 years old

Holding hands

One more thing to remember, I walked around the block with the girls yesterday and Jenna wanted to hold Kaylee's hand.  Kaylee usually doesn't like to hold anyone's hand, but she let Jenna hold it for awhile. They looked so cute walking, I wished I had had my phone to take a picture.  They giggled as they lead each other on the sidewalk and pulled back and forth.  Too cute.

They interact more with each other now and like to copy each other.  It's fun to watch them grow.

Busy week

I had a busy week this week and I didn't take any pictures :(, but we did take some video clips.

Monday was a finish cleaning and laundry day.  It's never fails to amaze me how much time laundry and cleaning takes.  We also ran to Home Depot to get some supplies for a project I want to do - now I wonder if I should have just bought one, but oh well.  Also a quick trip to the grocery store was needed for some essentials.

This week I took the girls and Chris to get their pictures taken at JCPenny.  We did it in three trips.  On Tuesday I took both girls and Chris.  I had the girls in their new pajamas and had them bring their animals that they sleep with.  I was hoping to get some cute relaxed type pictures.  I didn't really do their hair, just wanted it to be natural.  Well, Jenna got too tired from the drive over and wouldn't stop rubbing her eyes.  Kaylee was good to sit still, but no smiles.  It really was a bad time for them.  Chris was good for his though.  I don't have many professional pictures of Chris since we didn't live by a JCPenny's when he was little, so I was glad to get some of him.

Wednesday I took Kaylee to get her pictures taken, I chose her first since she slept in the longest.  She did great.  She had some big smiles and we got some fun shots.  She was done by the end so we didn't get a good one with me - you think she would have been happy to sit in my lap, but no, she wanted to play.

Thursday was the first day of 'Sporting Around.'  It was a little class that I signed Chris up for.  In Vernal the boys went to Itty Bitty Ball and loved learning to play different sports.  I was hoping this class would be like that, but it wasn't.  They just did some kid exercises, played with a parachute, and did an obstacle course.  Those are fun things, just not what I had hoped for.  I felt bad for Chris, he really needed a friend.  The other kids in the class had taken the previous sessions and were in day care together, so they were all very friendly with each other.  Chris was kind of the lone man out.  He cried and didn't participate very much.  At the end he did do the obstacle course, but he said he didn't want to go back.  I'm glad that we only have the class 2 more times.  I think it is good for him, but he just didn't think it was very fun and it is hard when you don't know anyone.

Friday it was Jenna's turn for pictures.  She had a hard time at first and didn't want to sit and kept running out of the picture place, but then she warmed up and we got a few smiles and fun shots.  I was glad that it was mostly successful - I really didn't want to redo them.  So I will post the pictures next week after I pick them up so they are a better quality than the preview ones online.

Saturday I went to a consultation for LASIK surgery.  I have always wanted to get my eyes fixed and be done with contacts and glasses.  Sadly after the tests and scans the Dr. said that my corneas are not thick enough for the normal surgery.  (It's entirely genetic I guess, nothing to do with wearing contacts too long or anything)  I could have a combination of two procedures done to fix my vision.  One would insert a lens into my eye, in front of my current lens, and then do the PRK on the surface to fix my astigmatism.  However those procedures are more money so the total would be close to $6500.  There are other things that are more important than my eyes for that much money, so I guess I will get to keep wearing contacts, sigh.  I was pretty bummed about it, but I guess that's just how it goes.  I did some grocery shopping after that then worked on fixing dinner for the missionaries - we had Cafe Rio pulled pork salad/tacos.

I wanted to remember that Jenna and Kaylee know some colors now and some shapes.  They are trying to walk up and down stairs without holding on to anything - which isn't good.  Jenna learned this the hard way yesterday by falling all the way down the stairs.  I was holding Kaylee in the front room and looked up and saw a blur of hair and shirt go tumbling all the way down.  She seemed OK and didn't even really cry, more shocked I think.  However when I did her hair this morning I found some blood crusted in her hair.  (that's another hard thing with girls, their hair hides things too well).  I rinsed her hair and found a small cut, she must have hit the edge of a banister.  Hopefully she will be more careful on the stairs.

Kaylee has done a weird thing twice now.  This past week we were walking home from school and she tripped while holding my hand.  This caused her to pivot down and she fell and hit her head on the sidewalk.  I didn't think she hit too hard, but she kind of went limp, and then she arched her back and her eyes kind of rolled back and she was struggling to breathe.  It was like she was blacking out or something.  Of course I was worried but I was more calm this time because she had done it before.  Last time she fell off the couch when she was around 18 months or so.  That time I thought she was dying - she didn't breathe for a second. and I sort of freaked out.  Anyway, I really don't like it when this happens.  I wonder if she is more sensitive to head injuries or something.  I will talk to their Dr. about when we go in for their 2 year check up.

As a side note it is snowing right now, crazy.  It was close to 80 degrees on Friday, such a nice day- we broke out the water guns and had a fun time in the sun.  Now it looks like a blizzard with the lawn snow-covered and the wind blowing.

This week we will be working on Damon's Science Fair project and really start thinking about all the birthdays coming up!

Funny Girls

 A few things that the girls do lately.  Jenna especially likes to take off her clothes.  Both of them almost always take off their pants during the day, but sometimes Jenna manages to take her onesie off too- at least she left her diaper on :).  I think it had to be one of the bigger ones since she wiggles out of it without undoing the snaps.  Jenna also lover her belly button.  She will slide her hand up her onesie from the leg hole, or put her hand down the front of her shirt (stretching out the neck) to feel it.  It's pretty funny.

The girls both like to look at books and try on shoes.

Jenna

Jenna

 Kaylee still likes to dress up more than Jenna does, but the dress-up clothes usually don't stay on long.

Kaylee

They are both jabbering a lot now and say lots of one or two word sentences to get what they want.  We have listened to "Frozen" a lot lately and the girls sing along too.  They will sing 'Let it Go,' and do the tick tock part on 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman.'  Kaylee will also sing the "deep deep deep deep snow" part at the end.

They are getting over a little cold, it wasn't too bad.  I did have to stay up with them during one night but I enjoyed holding them.  They are getting big and I am trying to enjoy their small-selves while I can.  They are getting more personality.  Kaylee loves to dance and will start to whenever music is turned on.  Jenna is good at pulling sad faces when she is told "no".  I'll copy her sad face and then she smiles and laughs.  I love them both so much and I am so thankful to have them.

Legos

 Here are some of Damon's latest creations.  He has made others, but I don't get around to taking pictures of all of them.

TMNT Shell Raiser

Harry Potter Basilisk and Voldemort's wand.

 Star Wars Vulture Droid

Spring Break

 This past week was Spring Break for us, sadly we didn't really do anything.  The weather wasn't too warm but we did make it to the park during the week and played outside when we could.

 At the park Damon found this airplane, he wanted to keep it, but we wondered if had been left by the group of kids that had been there for a school outing.  We saw that the bus had driven to a nearby park.  When we were leaving we drove over to ask if it belonged to any of them.  Damon was hoping it didn't so he could keep it, but we did find an owner.  Damon was a little bit bummed, but I hope that he felt some sense of good in doing the right thing.

We basically just let the kids play all week.  I think they enjoyed the break and had time to do the things they like to do.  I let them play the wii twice a day, before lunch and before dinner.  They spent a lot of time playing Legos too.  Damon and Tyler play very well together.  Chris kind of throws a wrench in things.  He wants to do things, but isn't quite able to, or he just wants whatever Damon or Tyler has - then we have to take turns and it just gets old. Chris is going through a really whinny stage and will just totally melt down when he doesn't get what he wants.  I am trying to be patient but it really is getting old.  

We are enjoying conference weekend.  It took us almost all of the morning session yesterday to sort our Legos back into their colored boxes.  We all listened pretty well this morning - conference BINGO works well, they really wanted to hear those words and get a bingo.  We used Cheerios this time and everyone was eating away their tokens. :)  

I had to run some errand during part of the afternoon session on Saturday.  I sold some of the girls' clothes at a consignment sale run by a group called Darling Doubles.  I just joined a couple of weeks ago, so we'll see if I meet some other 'twin moms' and make some new friends.  I found some things for the girls as well, 4 pairs of shoes for $0.50 each! 

I have a busy week ahead of me.  I am taking the girls to get their pictures taken at JCPenny's.  I wanted to take them independently and together so I am going three times.  Let's hope for some cute smiles and good photographers.