Tis The Crazy Season!

Okay I hate posting pictures of myself... but after all the craziness and complete exhaustion lately... I need to be somewhat proud of myself considering I have somehow managed to survive the first three months of 4 kids under 4. Ever since the twins were born I have been literally running non stop all over the place (when I go to the store people look at me like I am nuts... but they have no idea what life is like for me) Running all the time non stop is how I have lost almost all 50 lbs so far, but I still have a few to go... 12 weeks isn't bad to lose pretty much all of it though, so I need to take 30 seconds and be proud of myself.

~The last couple weeks haven't been any exception to the craziness. Business has been good with well over 200 orders in the last 30 days, most of these orders being more than one pillow, problem is I have had to work at least 4 hours a day to help keep us on top of things and get all the Christmas orders out in time. The twins have been quite the handful though... they are horrible day sleepers so if I get anything done in a day it is in 10 minute increments. To add to the mess Aaron came down with a fever on Saturday of 102 and a cough and cold... so much for a flu shot. Now Kaylie has it, and I am now fighting 4 kids throughout the night, and trying to keep myself bug free...ha ha ha right... tis the season I guess.

~Well the girls are screaming again... so I've got to go I will try to get back on and get some recent pics of them posted....whenever I find the time!

Newborn Pictures

When I found out I was having twins I was bound and determined to get professional newborn pictures of them, I regret not having a wedding photographer (couldn't afford it) and I wish I would have done it for the other kids.... so I made it happen with the twins. Chantri Keele was the photographer and she did a fantastic job... so good that I will be going back for family pictures when the girls get a little older and when I lose all my baby weight.

Oh so precious!

Aaron the Stud!

Could you resist these brown eyes?

I've decided Kaylie could be a model... she is extremely photogenic... she definately didn't get that from me, I hate the camera and the camera hates me... but man it loves Kaylie!

Don't you love her dress? My friend Sarah D'evegnee made it for her.... she is so beyond talented! Thanks so much Sarah... it is Kaylie's favorite dress she wants to wear it ever week.

My four beautiful kids! I love them tons!

Two Months!

Okay.... I am two weeks late on this post but better late than never....right? (These pictures were taken when they were 8 weeks.

~So Alyssa (on the right) was the biggest baby at 5 lbs 5 oz and Lydia was 4 lbs 13 oz. But Lydia has always been the aggressive eater, she sets the eating time... when she is ready to eat ... they both eat. So Lydia started to gain weight pretty quickly while Alyssa slowly gained, naturally I expected Lydia to out weigh Alyssa by at least a few ounces.... as she has gotten so cute and chubby so fast... But much to our surprise they weighed in at the EXACT SAME!!! Both 8 lbs 13.5 oz! And they were both 21 in tall! Just too funny!
Sorry for the less-than-professional posses it is so hard to get a good shot of both of them... but this shot cracks me up with Alyssa playing with Lydia's ear... she is always tapping her as if she just can't get enough of her sister.

Left: Lydia Right: Alyssa They are getting so big so fast!

Double the Smiles!

Lydia and Alyssa

~Here are my cute lil girls at 7 weeks.... yeah 7 weeks already! They are almost two months old! As you can see they are getting cuter by the day and they are starting to sleep longer at night YAY!!! Like my good friend says... "small victories" and they are so important. But sleep isn't the only good news....

With sleep comes.... SMILES!!! I've been trying to get some good pictures of their adorable smiles for a while now... and this is as good as it gets for now... I can't blame them though, I'd rather smile at mom than some giant black thing in my face too. This smiling babe is Lydia!
And this is the best picture I could get of Alyssa's smile for now at least... oh so precious!
And check out Lydia's eyes! You can't tell in this photo very well but she has a very big and beautiful blue eyes with a sort of lavender tint. And she has long dark eye lashes to frame the beauties! And last but not least.... she's already starting to grow back her hair! Yay!
Here is Alyssa and her gorgeous eyes... I really can't tell what color they will be... it really just depends on the day. But more often than not, they look like they will be brown... but until we know it's a mystery I guess. She is such a doll!

Lydia Again!

And Alyssa... rocking her skinny jeans. Okay, they aren't real "skinny" on these girls... but they sure are cute... even though they are huge!

Twins Blessing Day

Left: Alyssa, Right: Lydia

~So the girls were blessed two weeks ago today... yeah, I know, I'm a little behind, but I have a pretty good reason (or two). Jacob was really nervous, but he did a great job! A Great Big Thanks to all the family who showed up to support us, it means the world to us! So yeah... it's hard enough to get pictures on one baby let alone two very hungry babies...so we had to hurry!

~Here's Lydia... poor girl went through awful cradle cap all over her face and head, and lost most of her hair just before her blessing.... hence the giant flower headband. But she is one Beautiful Baby none the less!
~And here's Alyssa... and all her hair (which is still only about half the hair that Kaylie had). Such a cutie pie!

Left: Alyssa, Right: Lydia

~Gotta love my Beautiful Babies! They were both almost 6 weeks in these photos.... and my how those weeks flew by... but hey, time flies when you are having fun!

Random Post..... If you are struggling....

Okay this is yet another random post.... but it is something that I have been feeling like I need to share for a while now.

Jacob and I have been living our life day to day... literally, and it has been a definite roller-coaster ride. A few months ago I was gripping about it to my brother and he sent me this wonderful link to a CES Fireside Talk by Elder Christofferson. In short, it is all about trusting the Lord... and if you are struggling in any way, especially financially, this is one of those talks that you just need to hear...and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you take the time to listen to it!

"Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread"

Here is the link: http://lds.org/media-library/video/ces-firesides?lang=eng&query=Our+Daily+Bread#2011-01-1000-give-us-this-day-our-daily-bread

I will be back in a few hours to post some pics of the twins... ;)

One Spooktacular Halloween

This year Kaylie and Aaron were dinosaurs for Halloween. We would have done some family theme, Jacob and I were going to be Jurassic Park workers and the twins were going to be dinosaur hatch-lings, but we ran out of time. These costumes are awesome, my mom made them and I wore the pink one when I was Kaylie's age. The plus side is that they are big enough for coats underneath and they keep you nice and warm even in Idaho.

Kaylie striking a pose... like usual.

Aaron was impossible to get a good shot or two of, the darn kids won't hold still.

And we're off! The kids were sooo excited to go trick or treating... they've been talking about it for months.

Sugar high.... lasted for a few days until mom hid the candy and started to ration it out.

Pumpkin carving, basically last minute pumpkin carving that is... I kind of thought that Halloween was on Tuesday (the next day) until we visited family and they straightened me out... I don't know what the deal with my brain is.
Our spooky porch... I'm sorry my "Sorry we're DEAD" sign is the coolest. Plus you've gotta love the witch that our house landed on top of and Jacob had to throw his Gene Wilder head in to spook things up. All in all it was one super fun Halloween.

One Month Already!!!

Left Lydia, Right Alyssa

~My girls are one month old already! Where did that time go? It has gone by too fast! These girls have been really good babies, they are pretty good sleepers (knock on wood) and we have only had a few restless nights... thank goodness. As I have been super busy not only with these two but Aaron has decided he is ready to be potty trained (of course) and he is doing really well, but it sure makes for a lot of running around.

Can you tell the difference? They are almost completely different. The most obvious difference is that Lydia (the poor girl) has less hair and is losing it daily, which makes me want to cry. Alyssa however isn't losing hair at all so it looks like one bald twin and one twin with tons of hair.

They are getting so chubby! A little over a week ago Lydia was 6 lbs 1 oz while Alyssa was 6 lbs 5 oz. I think that Lydia is bigger than Alyssa now though, but we kind of expected that as she has longer feet.

Don't you love the outfits? my grandma and aunt got us a bunch of super cute outfits and that is what these girls have been living in for the last month. Can't thank everyone enough for the clothes, blankets and oh yes DIAPERS!!! I go through over 20 diapers everyday.
~This picture shows how bald my poor Lydia is getting, unfortunately she has a receding hair line and I like to laugh about it (as I have always wanted a bald baby, don't ask I just have), but when people comment about it I find myself getting very defensive... she is beautiful to me and I really don't compare her to Alyssa, and that is a hard part about twins I never expected... that is that people compare the two (understandable, as they are in fact twins) but I have found some people favoring Alyssa slightly (as she is more laid back, while Lydia is more dramatic), and that is a sure way to make mommy mad. Keep this in mind if you bump into twins, please watch what you say, twin moms are particularly sensitive.

~You've got to love Alyssa's face in this picture... she is my face puller, she is always making the funniest faces.

Kaylie holding Alyssa, which she doesn't get too do a whole lot of just because I am such a schedule Nazi, and you would be too if you had twins. If I keep them on the schedule they are on they are very easy to manage, but if I slip... that means an all nighter for mom and dad. So Kaylie will take every minute she can get with each baby, and she has been such a good helper, I dont' know how I could live without her.
Kaylie and Lydia. Lydia was a little cranky and wanted to eat, it wasn't quite time yet and Kaylie insisted on holding her. And some how my four year old got her to fall right to sleep in just a few minutes. Kaylie loves every minute of her two baby "st-is-sters".

Stop Praying for Patience!!!

(Well Worth The Read)

~If you are anything like me, you have prayed for patience.... several times, only to discover that a prayer like that will only test your wits to no end, and before long you will find yourself pulling out your hair and screaming, "I didn't pray for things to get harder."

~A few months ago I was giving a lesson in Relief Society and the topic of patience came up and I mentioned how I have prayed for patience several times and the frustrating results to these prayers. Especially with Jacob, he is normally a very patient person, and it takes a lot for him to get frustrated. But with his eye condition he has become increasingly impatient and easily frustrated, as I can only imagine it must be extremely frustrating to ever so slowly lose your eye sight. Oddly, as I tell him to be patient, I grow more and more impatient with his impatience and then I pray for patience (for it only to get much worse) and thus the cycle goes. Then I found myself pregnant (with the twins), beyond exhausted, and super sick. As the pregnancy progressed everything got much, much harder and I found myself in the same boat as Jacob, getting very impatient and very frustrated with myself and him in turn getting impatient with me. I'd pray for patience and of course it just would get harder.

~After the lesson, a sweet sister came up to me and she told me to stop praying for patience and to start praying for charity, "because patience will always fail, while charity never fails". This sister would know as she has a son my age with down-syndrome and I can only imagine how her patience has been tried and tested.

~So I stopped praying for patience and started to pray for charity, and it has changed my life! It allows me to see things in a perspective that I could never see before while I was wasting all my efforts focusing on my impatience. Charity takes the focus off my failed attempt at patience, and centers it on the perspective of the person or situation that I am dealing with, and then ample compassion follows, which allows me to work through the situation with patience.

~It took that awful pregnancy for me to realize that the reason Jacob is so impatient is because he is becoming less and less dependent upon himself to see the world around him and more and more dependent on me and my vision, just as I became more and more dependent on him to help me throughout the pregnancy, and it is much easier for me to be of assistance, rather than escalate the problem by getting frustrated with him.

~Having charity is essential with twins! As any mother knows a newborn can be sooo frustrating especially at 2 am. Try having two! With charity I have more empathy and compassion with the twins and more resolve to help them solve their problems, and this brings a calmness which in turn calms the twins.... making life sooo much more do-able. Also charity reminds me that this too will pass, and exhaustion never killed anyone.

~I can't thank that sweet sister enough for her advice, and I just wanted to share it with others: if you are being challenged and your patience is being pushed to the absolute max... pray for charity, trust me somehow it just works!

Two Weeks of Crazy!!!

Left to Right: Lydia and Alyssa Two weeks old exactly!

~Okay so it has been a little more than two weeks... sorry I have a lot going on lately! Let me just start by saying I wish everyone could have twins! I'm serious, these sweeties are sooo much fun, and they have brought a lot of happiness to our home. I was really worried (along with Jacob) that I would really struggle with two babies, but I've definitely changed (thanks to all the trials we've had lately) and I've been completely calm rather than over the top anxious even when we are up all night. As I have learned the hard way that there are far worse things than a crying baby or two, and this will all be over very quickly, so I am just enjoying every single minute of these two!

Because I have been calm these two have been very good babies. They already have a semi-sort-of schedule going on which has been a huge blessing, fingers crossed that they stay this way!
My Brain is on vacation....seriously.... it is beginning to be a huge problem. This happened the other day... I was hurrying to get Aaron dressed and so I quickly pulled his pants up and left the room only to see him plop down to the floor in frustration, thought it was another two year old temper tantrum.... nope mom just somehow got both this guy's feet in one pant leg.

~The same day I stood in front of the fridge for 20 minutes looking for the lunch meat only to realize I was holding it. Then I mixed up dates and completely missed our kids photo shoot. But thank goodness the photographer was more than understanding. And the list goes on and on.

The craziness hasn't been the twins, but my two older kids. Both have been just awful. So needless to day there have been about 20 or more time outs a day. Here is Aaron mimicking Kaylie and all the hours she has spent with her nose in the corner.

And here's Kaylie spending time in her corner. She has started teasing Aaron to no end, and the screaming is horrible, not to mention she always has something to do with Aaron waking the babies. I know this is just their way of getting my attention, but good grief enough all ready.

Lydia Top, Alyssa bottom. Can you see the differences? I think that Lydia looks a lot like my brother and sister Steven and Chantell. She has lighter hair (the main difference) and Alyssa looks just like Kaylie when she was a baby. The guess is that they will both have blue eyes... but as far as whether or not they will look alike is yet to be seen.
Left Alyssa is screaming because she is getting eaten my Lydia.... too funny. These two will always make their way towards each other in the crib or on the floor and usually starting sucking on each other.
Left Lydia, and right Alyssa. I just can't get enough of these two! They have already gained about 1 lb a piece! They are getting so big so fast!

~Report on me: I am feeling great! As anyone would after getting just over 10 lbs of baby taken out of them. I am recovering very quickly and everything is looking perfect! I found out on Friday that I have lost 30 lbs! That is 30 lbs in 2 weeks, no exercise and eating like a horse! It is crazy!!! I gained 48 lbs with this pregnancy (I was determined to have healthy twins and so I made myself gain that much) so I still have 18 lbs to go, but after talking to other twin moms, I'm really not worried about it, seems like I will be back to myself in no time, because I am nursing and they consume at least 1,000 calories everyday.

The Twins are Here!!!

Before the C-Section, September 28th 5:00 am at 37 weeks and 4 days. This is officially as big as I got! I was so tired and so miserable, and nervous, didn't sleep the whole night, don't know who could the night before your scheduled C-Section.

We had to be at the Hospital at 5:30 am to be prepped for the C-Section. Which wasn't bad at all by the way. After the few complications, with them not gaining enough weight, and them both being breech. And after some of the awful contractions I realized that Lydia (Baby B) was getting the worst of it, as her poor head was up in my rib-cage and taking the brunt of the contractions, so after knowing for a week about the procedure I started to like the idea much more.

Surgery was so fast! I had a Spinal-Tap which was much better than the Epidural, as it took on much faster and wore off a lot faster too. The whole thing was over in about 30-45 minutes. Jacob watched the whole thing, and found it fascinating. It was just as (if not more due to two) awesome and spiritual as any delivery! And of course the surgery wasn't completed without the topic turning to cars... story of my life.
I mixed the pics up, and would fix it but I have two babies crying at me right now.... this is Baby B (born at 7:59 am) or Lydia Jo, she was 4 lb 13 oz. And she screamed (in a very high pitch might I add) from the minute they pulled her out and all while I was getting sewn up.
Here is the Baby A (first Baby) Alyssa Jo, (born at 7:57 am) she weighed 5 lbs 5 oz. She didn't cry she was just gurgling, because she swallowed some amniotic fluid. They held her up over curtain she had both fists under her cheeks and was just looking at me contently with her eyes wide open. Alyssa had to spend a few hours in the NICU with oxygen on and she had a few x-rays of her chest to make sure she was okay. Thankfully she was alright!
Kaylie and Lydia Jo. Kaylie was in Heaven! Her face says it all! So we gave them both the middle name Jo because they were born on my mom's Birthday. (My mom's name is Jodi). And "Jo" means sweetheart. So we found it fitting. We debated for a few days because we didn't want it to be weird that we gave them same middle names. Kaylie's middle name is Jane because she was born on Jacob's mom's Birthday and her middle name is Jane. (P.S. Aaron was born on my sister's Birthday too.)
From Left to Right: Alyssa, Aaron, Kaylie and Lydia, I just love how Aaron was so fascinated with how tiny the babies are.