A glimpse

A really quick glimpse.
Via the iphone,
so don't expect too much okay?


The babies are rockin the big kid tub.
Collin loves it


Keegan is not so sure
and had a death grip on Kenna
almost the entire time


Keegan was not happy that I messed with his hair
(so curly these days)
and then
wanted a picture of his valentines day outfit
instead of snuggling him


Collin was cool with it


and so was Cohen.

Lots of love was in the air this day
we all went to see Gnomeo and Juliet

and true to form
Keegan was a pain in the rear,
(a dang cute pain, but still a pain)
would not be quiet
sit still or stop climbing all over everything.

Collin sat in the stroller enthralled with the movie
and thrilled that Kenna was feeding him popcorn

Grandpa Rick and Grandma Becky
came out for presidents day weekend.
the kids were in heaven
So were we!

Dad and Ryan installed a new kitchen faucet
(the other was bad bad bad- think leaky water hose)


and my neighbor was
tossing this baby out for free


so we snatched it right up
and dad and Ryan hung it up.


Then of course we had the standard presidents day fare
Pizza, Cherry Pie, and Ice Cream
and we watched the American President
since our Dave DVD was missing in action

The following weekend
Ryan had some vacation days he had to use or lose
So of course we decided to use them
and we headed up to Oregon
to visit the Holly Doll, Bryner Bug and Cory
and the rest of our fun family that lives up there.

I had great intentions to take pictures of everything.
didn't happen.
But here's a hodge podge

Our first full day there


I discovered
Craft Warehouse
Love, true love


but our trip through heaven was cut short
when Bryn's school called
and said she had bonked her mouth,
and could Holly come


Understatement of the century.
This is after a major clean up
Girlfriend had fallen against a metal step
Knocked out her two front teeth
(that weren't even a smidge loose)
Loosened the others
sliced and diced her lip up
and ripped her whatever its called
that connects your lip to your gums

Ouch

She was a trooper though
even when I was gagging
watching her try to eat a banana
that ended up slimy and smeared with blood
and watching her suck on the chunk of lip
that was hanging down
(the doctor said they don't stitch mouths, but it was bad, real bad)
I had to turn away every time she would do this

We shopped, we went to goodwill,
we ate donuts

And then we took my sick kids to the doctor
and had to pay lots of cash
up front
for anyone to even look at them
Even thought we have insurance
Grrr...


Collin got his first ear infection
and we hope his last.
He was not a happy camper.


Check out Keegan's
massive green snot
MMMmmm...
and fever red cheeks and ear.
Poor Baby


Kenna too.

Sicky vacations are not as fun
as non sicky vacations
Still fun but...


Keegan was enthralled with Mary's cat
Costello was almost as big as Keegan was
and he sat and stared at him forever


We also stopped to leave flowers at
Mom and Grandma's grave
while we were in Dallas
Caden got out of the car and helped out
even though it was raining


Vacation wiped us out


When we got back
Keegan learned how to climb up here
and MAN was he Proud of Himself
as you can see from the grin

They are almost walking
almost.
Any day now its going to get really crazy.

As if it wasn't before.


This big guy had his 4th Birthday
and he reminds us daily sometimes hourly
of all things he can do now.
Now that he is 4, Now that he is big.
Man, I love him.

even though he has randomly thrown up around midnight
two out of the last three nights
and it has been horrible to clean up
(I will spare you the pictures)
ten million times worse than Keegan's Puke Party.
and then insists in the day that he is not sick and feels fine
and has no other symptoms.


Doing my late night clean up routine last week
I found this guy
posed exactly this way.
I was laughing so hard
I had to hold my breath until I made it out of the room
so I wouldn't wake up the boys
He looks like
he is doing some kind of inappropriate dance move
or something
my favorite
is the bum sticking out and the hand posed just so.
I still laugh looking at it.
Its the little things in mommy hood
You know what I mean?

Last but not least


This is what I looked like
this week
last year.
C-R-A-Z-Y
I remember fervently praying
that I would go into labor on my birthday
Yeah, no dice.
But looking back,
What a cool thing that I got to be a part of
Its not every person that gets to grow two babies
and carry them full term
and be able to deliver them without a c-section.
Miracles happen every day.

30 was a very good year.
A growing year
A blessed year
Very Hard
Very Fun
Very emotionally charged with the good and bad

I am a lucky lucky lucky girl
I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Happy Birthday to me.
Here's to hoping 31 is just as great.

Cohen turns 3

So most of you know
Cohen's 3rd Birthday was in March



It is now October


But 3 is a big year
and I could not let this pass us by without a blog post

I have major guilt about all the things that slipped past
or were knowingly shoved to the side
while I was pregnant with the twins,
and yeah um...since they have been born.
No Halloween decorations?
Minimal Christmas decorations?
almost no blog posts while preggo or since.
The pictures are there and just begging for face time
and I want to remember the fun
and the awesomeness of everyday life
with my HILARIOUS kids.
So have patience
and pretend like these next several posts happened days ago
instead of months ago.
Deal?


I am a big believer in BIG DEALS for Holidays and Birthdays
and this kid is a big deal.


Hello!
He potty trained himself
(once he learned he could get out of nursery at church to use the potty)
and thinks that he is turning 6 like Caden is instead of 3.


His favorite foods in THE WORLD are macaroni and cheese,
and hot dogs, and avacados, and tomatoes, and strawberries, and watermelon




He is very expressive and makes the best faces.
Definitely the clown at the dinner table
or any other time he thinks it will get a laugh


He is my best sleeper ever
and has been since 7 weeks old
Bed at 8
Lays down and rolls over,
says
"Sweet dreams mommy,
I want Swamp Fire and Chromostone for my "bird day"
and I love you"
then closes his eyes and is out.
Every night.
Don't hate me for that.
He wakes up every morning between 8 and 10 and says
"morning mommy,
I sleep good,
I want pink milk and watch Ben 10."
and then repeats
"pink milk and Ben 10."

He is a great sport when his sister dresses him up in her clothes

He is scared of all kinds of things, but especially bugs
and is constantly saying "You hear dat?" "I heared that."
and uses the excuse that "there is a bug so he can't"
whenever he wants out of something.


He is a huge BYU fan
and claims anything BYU he finds as his own
"That my shirt huh mom? Cause it say BYU cougars on it."



He is constantly challenging me
to see just how far he can go
or just how much he can push it
(i.e.-painting himself with my mascara)
Sometimes he is a little bit stinky and hits other little kids.
It takes a while to get him going, but once provoked,
he does not back down or walk away without a push or a kick.
I cannot seem to break him of this
no matter how many time outs and bedtimes and talks.


He cannot fathom the idea
that he is not just as big, strong, tall, and capable
as all the older kids.
He takes it for granted that he is always invited
and gets himself stuck, or hurt, or mad, all the time.
When I try to tell him he just replies
"But I big mom, I big. Big like Caden."


He loves going places
anyplace
he is always terrified that we are going to leave without him
so he is always running with his shoes in his arms
and half falling down the stairs
in an effort to not be left behind
He takes it very seriously.
"I gotta help Dadda (his name for Ryan) at the store"
"He need me, I gotta go"


My amazing friend Caitlin
said she thought her cousin Jeff might do a party for me.
For the big day
Sure
why not?
8 months pregnant with twins
I was not feeling so into party planning.
But she convinced me that it would be awesome,
and man was she ever right.


He showed up with some of his animals
and put on a great show.


I mostly took pictures of the kids
(who were enthralled)



but I should have been
taking pictures of all of the adults
they were just as fascinated
and entertained as the little ones.


I think that the adults squealed and screamed
more than the toddlers did.

He said that if I would have given him more notice
he could have gotten even more animals.

Are you kidding me?
With all the snakes and lizards and turtles and bugs,
my house did not need one more reptile
or insect
in it.


But like I said,
great show.
Perfect mix of fun and information
He let the kids feed the turtles
and taught them how to tell if a snake is poisonous

Caitlin also knows my history with last minute cakes
and no themes and so on
and it drives her crazy
(and she knew I was not feeling so hot)
so she offered to make the cake for me
for Cohen's big day.

She asked me what I wanted
and I laughed and said go for it
expecting cupcakes with frosting
(I would have been totally thrilled with that)
But of course she goes above and beyond.

She knew the theme of the party
According to Cohen it was a "Nake Party"
So she did some research and came up with this.


Are you kidding me?
One of the coolest cakes I have EVER seen!
She looked up the snake on the internet
and HAND PAINTED this one with food coloring
to look like a (kick me if I'm wrong)
Burmese Python.


I could not believe my eyes
when she walked in with it.

So cool.

Complete with M&M eyes and a licorice toungue
I really didn't even want to cut it up
or let any of the kids touch it.



It looked so real
Cohen was even a little afraid of it
when we set it in front of him.

Seriously Caitlin,
you are thewinner of
the coolest cake ever award.

And it tasted so good.

I hope that it was a really fun party
for my really amazing little man.
Like a said
3 is a big year
and so far it has been really great.

Kenna Bear's Big Day

Kenna turned the big 4 Saturday.

So we had some pizza
then headed out to the Nickelcade.
Kenna had no clue what the Nickelcade was
but she was dang excited to go and get to it.


She got the hang of it pretty quickly.
She and her cousin Aliyah tagged teamed most of the games.



Princess B looks like a Vegas Veteran
She has her stool and her machine
what else could a girl need
(besides the nickels of course)



She shared her secrets with Aliyah,
and
man did they rake in the tickets.



Uncle Steven was kind enough
to chase Cohen around


until
he got really stinky,
then Uncle Steven said he was all mine again.
Lovely.


Then Uncle Philip and Aunt Laura
were brave enough to take him on.
Very brave.
It was VERY Stinky.

For some reason,
I only got pictures of half the crew that was there,
but
Kenna was taking this game playing business seriously
and I had to pretty much run to keep up.


She sweetly asked me an hour before her party started
if I remembered that she really wanted
an Ariel Cake.
Yeah,
first time I EVER heard that.
Luckily Dad,
and the Macey's Bakery
came through for us.


She was THRILLED with all of her gifts,
tried on her new pajamas,
and got to work with her whimsy kit
(thank you Rachel, Mac and Vienna)
right away.

As she was going to bed
she asked if
she could have her birthday again tomorrow.
when I laughed
she said
Okay, maybe next week.

What a kid huh?
Love this girl.