33 years old

Well, I had a great birthday.  Doug surprised me with this Chromecast device.  It is pretty cool.  Now we can watch YouTube videos, listen to Pandora and watch General Conference on our TV- being connected wirelessly to the computer or our phones or the iPad.  I also got  new shirt and movie and new snow boots.

In the morning I went to our Stake Women's Conference.  It was a great meeting with inspired talks.  They provided lunch and had some service projects that we could help with.  It was a great morning to have a break from the normal routine and visit with friends.

In the afternoon I still had some Saturday chores to do, but such is the life of a parent.  I also spent some time preparing for my Primary lesson - I need to be better at doing more earlier in the week.

After dinner we were invited to a friends house to play a "not so newly wed" game.  It was a lot of fun.  She had a chocolate fountain and we all brought things to dip.  Then we tried to answer questions correctly with our spouses to earn the most points.  Doug and I didn't do the greatest, but it was still a lot of fun.  I guess we need to go on more dates and talk so we can get to know each other better.

33 sounds like a fun number to me, so I am happy to be it.  I had lots of birthday wishes on Facebook and emails and a few phone calls from family.  I am lucky to have the friends that I do and I am grateful for Doug and all of my family.

Here's to another year older :)

Valentine's Day

 We had a great Valentine's this year.  Usually we don't do very much, but I told Doug that we needed to try harder to make it a special day and show our love for each other.  It was a lot of fun.  I did the 14 days of Valentines for Doug.  I found some printouts on Pinterest and found the candy to match - so that there was a little note and treat for Doug each day (for example: "No matter how you slice it, I love you!" given with orange slices).

Doug brought home flowers and chocolates the day before Valentines so I was surprised to see them early.  Then on Valentine's morning there was a wrapped present on the counter and I discovered that he gave me a locket too.  I had hinted that I liked this necklace from a Groupon, but I thought he was going to give it to me for my birthday, so that was a surprise.  Doug really treated me well and gave me a great Valentine's Day this year.

The charms are "my boys" and then two flowers pink and purple for the girls, then one that says XOXO

 I have fun making Doug's present this year.  Again I found this idea on Pinterest.  I printed off a bunch of pictures of Doug and I and then made this collage on our initials.

 It took a bit of time to make the pictures fit and cut them to the right size, but it was fun and I think it turned out great.  They are pretty big, 8 inches by 12 inches, you can't tell in the picture, sorry no frame of reference.

Doug also took me to the Stake Valentine's Dance.  We got together with some other couples from the ward and went to eat at Nordy's BBQ and Grill, it was really good.  We had to wait awhile to be seated, but then we talked and ate for about 2 hours.  It was great to enjoy good food and company.  The dance was fun.  The theme was high school reunion.  They had old school photographs, letterman jackets and cheer leading outfits on the wall.  They did a good job.  We danced for awhile, Doug was a good sport about it.  They had a Wii hooked up and did a couple of Just Dance songs for the crowd to dance to, it was fun.  It was a great night away from the kids and normal routine of things.  I am so grateful for Doug and the wonderful guy that he is and I was so glad that I could spend the evening with him.  

I will post the picture of us when they email it to us.  You were supposed to dress like you did in high school.  Well, I found my old orange hat and wore my Tuellerette jacket.  I actually had two people come up to me recognizing the jacket, pretty funny.   

Kids and Photos

Can I just say that if we didn't have any kids we would take a lot less pictures.  I noticed that at the end of January we reached picture number 5000.  Wow, 5000 pictures since August of 2012 (17 months).  I'm worried about the numbering system a bit.  What will happen after 9999?  I guess we will see.

So here are some more pictures of the kiddos:

The girls sort of were getting the hang of play doh:

 They liked to roll it anyway, and stamp animal feet in it.  Kaylee

 Jenna

 The girls like to ride the buses like a ride-on toy. Kaylee

 Jenna putting the people in the bus. (Jenna is usually the one with her hair pulled out, she is notorious for it)

 A glimpse at a new way to organize our afternoons and evenings in a effort to have less screen time.  The boys made a list of fun things they like to do.  Then they pick out two for each day, one after school the other after dinner.  If the activity is short then they sometimes get some screen time too, but at least it is less.

 The swimming goggles have been a fun toy lately:

 Fun sweatshirts:

 With a fun hood, Jenna didn't want hers on.

 Tyler made a Ninjago figure out of blocks.

 Chris a fire sword

 I went shopping to JBF sale this past week and found some things I needed.  They weren't the best prices, but still less than new (around $5 each for the dresses and shoes).  I found these dresses for the girls and got them and Chris some sandals.  I also bought some dolls for the girls, now we will wait and see if they ever play with them.  Sigh, sometimes having older brothers makes a difference.
Jenna

 Kaylee

 Jenna wouldn't hold still - we are singing if you're happy and you know it...

 My cute girls - I have fun doing their hair.  It's a good thing we have 11:00 church now, gives me more time to do different styles.

Hey it's February

This is the one picture that I took all week - guess not much is going on that I think is picture worthy.  I need to remember to document the everyday stuff sometimes.  The girls had fun spinning in the computer chair.

Well, this past week was busy with errands, I did my visiting teaching, I helped in Damon's school class, watched neighbor kids on Monday and Friday, and ran a crazy trip to Walmart on Tuesday.  I also picked up 40 pounds of chicken tenders because they were $1.77 per pound.

I have to say that I had a rough week, I think I do better when I can just stay home and not have to stress about getting everyone ready and out the door by a certain time.  Yesterday was pretty bad, just lots of feelings of depression and I was tired which never is a good combo.  I feel much better today even though Chris got up in the night and Kaylee was up at 5:45 again.  They have been on an early streak lately which hasn't been very fun.  I did do some exercising this week, I checked out a new workout video from the library and I like it.  It really gives me a good cardio and I was definitely feeling my legs and buns the next day.

Damon and Doug just got back from the Cub Scout Klondike.  Sounds like they had a fun time doing some winter activities.  The rest of us stayed home and did our normal Saturday cleaning.  The boys are really good to do their two jobs without complaining too much.  (They have it pretty easy right now - we probably need to give them a few more jobs).  They like to watch Spiderman on Saturday mornings at 9:00, they can if they get their jobs done first - so that gives them some motivation.

I just got a new calling: teaching the 7 year olds in primary.  It is an exciting age group since they will be getting baptized this year.  I have one challenge since one of the boys in the class has Asperger's.  I don't know him very well, but I hope I can just love him and help him feel our Savior's love.  I am kind of glad to be done with RS committee.  I loved getting to know the other ladies on the committee, but my heart wasn't in it as much anymore - time to move on. I will help with this next activity on Tuesday, then I will be done with that.  We are going to do an exercise rotation with smoothies - should be fun.

Yeah it's February and I have two fun things planned - Stake Valentine's Dance and a couple's date night that we are invited too (on my birthday). So that is good to have some fun things to look forward too.   Now I just need to find some baby-sitters.

We have snow again, last Saturday we had a nice bike ride, this week it could be snow sledding.  It's supposed to get really cold again, sigh.  Oh well, we are slowly getting closer to spring.

Potty Train # 3 done

I think that Chris is now officially potty-trained, at least at home.  He hasn't been tested at other people houses or on trips yet, but I feel pretty confident that he will be fine.  Starting at the beginning of the month we have been working on it, but this past week it really sunk in.  Chris had to be bare bottomed again (I was going to do the whole week, regardless of what progress he was making, but by Thursday he seemed to be doing so well that I let him wear pants).  So that is another mile stone made by our Christopher and I am glad to be mostly done with it.  Way to go Chris!

This and That

 Not much going on, we did go to the zoo last Saturday, but we didn't take any new pictures.  The highlight of this trip was seeing the hippo out of the water and walking around.  We even got to see him mark his territory on the wall : /   It was the first warm Saturday that we have had this winter so we just had a quick trip in the afternoon.  We also got to watch the penguins get fed.  The girls prefer to walk around now, but the stroller came in handy when we needed to get moving.  They fussed about it, but oh well.

Let's see, Doug and I got to do sealings at the Denver Temple last Thursday, that was a nice trip with a stop at Cafe Rio on the way back.  I hadn't been to the Denver Temple yet, so it was neat to see it.

Haven't taken many pictures in the last 2 weeks:
Damon made Jack Frost's cool stick from Rise of the Guardians out of Legos.

Jenna playing on the shelf.

 Kaylee's turn to be cool:

 I asked Tyler to read a story to Chris, he read The Three Little Pigs very well.  The girls hopped up and grabbed a book of their own to look at.

 Back in November Doug and I were able to see Ender's Game and the 2nd Hunger Games movie in the theaters.  Well, that got Doug inspired to read the books.  He read Ender's Game and has recently finished the complete series of the Hunger Games.  Doug doesn't do much reading for fun, so I was glad that he wanted to read them.  It made me smile to see him walking around the house with his nose in a book.

Just a few catch phrases and memories to remember:

What Chris says when he is full:  "I have a yummy tummy ache."

Kaylee can say "Hi Jenna"  now. Jenna will try and say it too.
They both try to say Kaylee but it doesn't sound very clear yet.

Walking to school Kaylee doesn't like to walk on the ice or snow much.  She will wait at the edge and whine for me to take her hand or lift her across.  On the other hand, Jenna walks on the edge on the sidewalk to purposely track through as much snow as possible.  Funny girls.

Kaylee fell off our Lazy Boy recliner in her room and hit her nose good - as least that is what I guess.  I heard her crying and thought that Jenna had just taken a toy from her.  Jenna came downstairs and looked at me, so I went upstairs to help Kaylee.  Her poor nose and mouth were covered in blood and there were some pretty good spots on the carpet and chair.  She seemed fine once I got her all cleaned up. I'm probably glad I didn't see it happen.

Love of reading

So I just wanted to post that I love the reading that I do at night with Damon.  He reads on his own for his school reading and then I read to him.  We have now gone through all of the Harry Potter books (Damon actually listened to most of them on CD, but I did read some of them to him), the Fablehaven series, and now we just finished the Beyonder series.  We've been doing this for slightly over a year I think, I know he was listening to the HP books while he was in 2nd grade.  I love this one on one time with him and sharing our love of fun books.  Soon he will probably be reading more on his own and then I can read to Tyler and share this fun time with him.

Potty Training and Cute Girls

Chris loves his screen time, I really have to limit him.  I feel bad that he has grown up with so much electronic stuff, but there isn't really a good way of avoiding it unless we totally unplug - and I don't think that's going to happen.  I guess it's good practice to limit yourself on things that you really like to do.

The big thing with Chris this week is that we really are pushing the potty training.  We had resorted back to diapers after washing too many dirty underpants.  So I tried something that I had heard of and that my Dr. suggested.  I had him be bare-bottomed all day and told him he would get underwear and pants if he used the potty.  Well, we have had mixed results.  He is pretty good when he has nothing on, but after he earns his clothing back he resorts back to his old habits, then he has to go back to being bare again.  So we keep going back and forth.  I hope he figures things out since I feel bad that his legs are cold most of the day.  Sigh, it will be nice when this mile stone is conquered.

Here are some fun shots of the girls this week:

My cool Jenna girl!

 Jenna likes to take off her pants and then go find some shoes to put on, this day she chose Chris's slippers.

 A new hair-do for Church today:

I have the girls watch something when I do their hair, Kaylee watches TV better than Jenna - tuned in:

 Jenna is learning to say 'cheese' for the camera, it will be nice if I can get them to pose and smile for their pictures.

Didn't do too much else this week.  Just a regular school week, kind of nice to be back to a schedule.  I had RS this week and I helped in Damon's school class.  I also attended a baby shower for a friend yesterday and had a fun time.  They did a really cute job with the decorations and food.  The games were funny and the visiting was nice to get a break from the norm.

20 months and a Winter Day

 It snowed on Chris's birthday, so we went outside and played in the snow.  It was the first time putting full snow gear on the girls.  Kaylee didn't like it so much.

I caught a sneeze on camera:

 Jenna sort of walked around, Kaylee just stood there.

 The boys had fun with their new shovels from Christmas

 We have had some fun dressing up, boys too:
Kaylee likes it a bit more, or at least asks to wear the skirt sometimes.

 Bribing material for later :)

Well the girls are 20 months now.  They talk quite a bit but still like to run around get into things more than play with their toys. They like to sing Once there was a Snowman and Ring Around the Rosies.  They love it when their brothers play with them and they really like to jump on the bouncy house.  They like to walk to school when we pick up Damon and Tyler and are upset when I put them in the stroller for the trip back home.  We have gone a week now without binkies and they have done fairly well.  We were tired to trying to keep them quiet for each other, so now they just have to get used to each other's noises.  Having twins is still hard, but fun to watch them learn together.  They point to their body parts and each others.  They like their belly buttons and their noses.  They share pretty well, I think better than a single child.  They have learned 'sister' and I will hear them call each other sometimes, but it sounds like 'sissy.'  

a list of words that they say: apple, candy, cookie, cracker, milk, water, juice, mom, dad, peek-a-boo, I see you, hi, bye-bye, later, car, bike, zebra, fish, cat, hat, shoes (they love shoes), socks, coat, jacket, eat, sleep, soap, bath, all done and probably others.

We love our girls they are so cute.  I love that their hair is naturally curly after a bath.  I love how they snuggle with me.  I love how they play with each other - copy each other.  I can't believe they will be 2 in just 4 months.  Then we will see what it's like to have two 2 year olds.