Big Cottonwood Canyon

This Sunday is the dedication of the Brigham City Temple. President Monson canceled church this week and encouraged people to attend a session of the dedication.  We can't take the kids so we're having a relaxing day at home. Danny let me sleep in and I didn't get up until 9:40! The babies were already taking their morning naps when I woke up-it was bliss:) 

After the babies got up from naps we decided to go on a little hike. Yesterday was the first day of fall and you could see it up in the canyon-it was beautiful! Danny found a 0.3 mile hike to a waterfall. It was even short than it sounds! We only have one hiking backpack, which I need to remedy, but we let Lydia out pretty quickly because she was quite jealous of Joyce. We each took hold of a hand and they tripped over rocks and got themselves wet. The babies loved sitting on rocks and throwing pebbles into the water.

 Lucyw as super nice and smiled for me a couple times! She told me she felt like and expert rock climber and than it was probably one of her talents (her other talent is whistling).

 There are more pictures of Joyce because she was in heaven. She is quite coordinated and could manuever around rocks really easily. She is adventurous and loved getting wet and exploring.

 This kissy face came out of nowhere! Yes, I edited the snot rather poorly:(

 Danny has a little routine with the girls where he tells them to touch their heads, then fold their arms, then rub their tummies etc. The funny thing is the girls know the routine so well they usually skip what he tells them and jump to the next direction that they know is coming. It is a cute little thing Daddy does with them.

We had a really fun day. Now the babies are asleep and Danny and I are going to enjoy some Doc Martin on Netflix. I know, you wouldn't think it would be our favorite show but it is. We're addicted to it. It instantly brings peace and contentment-both of which sound pretty nice right?

Ruby turns 2

After taking a total of 4 pictures thus far in September, I took 205 in the last two days.  We had a great time celebrating Ruby's birthday.  On her birthday she came up to Salt Lake to hang out with us for the day.  Becca and I selfishly did fun errands, but the kids also got to play and Ruby got to open her presents from us and Grandma Karen and blow out some candles.

Lucy creates all of my wrapping paper. This is a picture of her and Ruby.

 We had a gift theme this year: Hello Kitty. Here she is sporting her new Hello Kitty backpack and lunchbox

 

Grandma Karen got her this super warm winter coat. It was hot in my house and Ruby wore it as long as she could stand it. 

 

 On Lucy's 2nd birthday Becca made her an Elmo fleece blanket. For Ruby's birthday I opted for Hello Kitty.

The next day Becca and I threw a friend birthday party for her.  We drove down really early and set up a Yo Gabba Gabba party. These are the cute character balloons. I cut out a lot of eye balls between the balloons and Muno cups.

 I made this Brobee cutout and Kaity provided the Polaroid camera. The kids got a kick out of shaking their pictures around and waiting for the image to appear. The odler girls spurned the unibrow:( Afterward we played pin the flower on Foofa.

 This was my baby. I made this pinata over the week and love his face. I knew I'd be sad when we took a bat to his face. Without any trees around Alan was kind to be my tree. Surprisingly he was not hurt in the pinata breaking process.

 All the kids gave it a goo hard whack and, since it was made from a box, my pinata showed no signs of damage.  Many of the adults gave it a try. Kyle really thrashed it, but even after we tore a whole in the side it showed no signs of giving.  Eventually I ripped him open and dumped him out. Poor Brobee.

 Ruby blew out her candle and we enjoyed colorful cupcakes with Gabba rings on them.

 

Ruby was given some wonderful gifts. I love her face in this picture-so excited about an Elmo guitar from Grandma Barbara!

 

Life now that school has started

Lucy goes to school each day at 12:10 and returns home at 3:00.  When I chose the afternoon schedule I had no idea they met so late! Lucy is in a class with all the girls from her church class so I'm happy, but her schedule seriously cuts up our day.  I am slowly getting used to it. We stay in our jammies/work out clothes until about 11PM each day. The babies are still acting tired at about 9:30...but starting to not nap as well when I put them down. I'm still trying to keep them to two naps a day.  After an early lunch Lucy and I walk the short block to her school. So far she has been really excited to go each day.  When I get home I feed the babies and we go on an outing. We haven't strayed to far from home yet (three short hours doesn't seem like enough to meet Becca and Ruby), but we have fun running errands.  After we get home the babies take an afternoon nap and Lucy and I do chores, homework and whatever else we need to do.

Last week was a little unique because Marilyn and Steve came to visit for a few days. We had such a fun time together.  We ate yummy food, went on walks and played with babies.  On Thursday we went down to Provo and got to hang out at BYU. I love the Provo mountains in the fall, it was so beautiful. I really like going back to BYU to visit. We went to the Museum of Art cafe for lunch, had Creamery ice cream in the Wilk, explored the bookstore (where we found a cute Merida poster for Lucy's room), and played in the fountain of the new (well, new when I was leaving) Humanities building (I'm starting to forget my acronyms...what is that building called?!). We had so much fun seeing Bryce and reminiscing.

On Saturday they had to go home but we squeezed in a fun visit to the natural history museum up here. It is a really cool museum. There were lots of interactive things that kept Lucy's (and my and Grandma's) attention.They even had a kids area that the babies loved.  We'll definitely go back before we leave Salt Lake.

We said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa after a yummy lunch at the Blue Lemon at City Creek.  The next day we had a regional conference at the Conference Center. We debated whether we should actually go (the babies are at a tricky age for church right now. Nursery is coming soon...). We decided to go. Well, it was a wild morning trying to park and situate ourselves with easy access to the door.  Danny walked the girls around until it started and Joyce fell on the marble floor and cut her lip up. Danny returned to me with blood all over his white shirt. As the music started and both girls were squirming I looked at Danny and mumbled, "This was a huge mistake." We were proud that we lasted a whole hour, but unfortunately I couldn't tell you what the two talks we heard were about. We left and enjoyed how beautiful temple square is on our way to the car. Then Joyce completely lost it and that ended our day:)

16 Months

Danny looked at me yesterday and told me how much he LOVES this age. I agree, 16 months is so much fun. I feel like the babies have really changed this month. All of a sudden they have tons of teeth, their hair is getting long and thick, they chat with us, give hugs and kisses and really play! It is amazing to see their little brains work-I feel like they are constantly learning and coming in to their own personality.

 Both girls have recently discovered TV. They used to just ignore it while Lucy watched her two shows in the morning, but lately they have plopped down on the couch to watch next to her.  I let all three girls watch Baby Signing Times, one of our favorite little videos, and they LOVE it. Lydia will do the sign for baby as soon as she hears the music and often when she wants me to turn it on for her.  As a result both girls can do quite a few signs. They  regularly sign "more", "all done" and "please" along with some others.  Unfortunately I already feel the TV guilt (thy are so young!) so I'm trying to curtail everyone's TV watching now (much to Lucy's distress).

I was rereading a blog post about Lucy at 16 months and it made me realize that these babies are definitely second/third children. I had listed all the words Lucy could say at that age and I don't think the babies say any real words yet! They still say Dada for Danny and Mommy or Mama for me...but I think that's it! The sad thing is that I'm not even sure...I need to listen to them more:)

Joyce is a firecracker. She has lots of energy and loves to explore and discover new things. She is a Momma's girl and loves to be held. Lately she is a bit unpredictable.  When she gets frustrated or doesn't get what she wants she melts down quickly and will throw some serious tantrums.  Unfortunately she lashes out and windmills her arms so as to hurt whoever is near her. This is new to me so we'll see how I'm still figuring out how to handle it:) Alternatively, she loves to give hugs and does the cutest little side hug.  She can be such a little ham, getting attention by giving hugs, kisses and doing her princess wave.  She absolutely loves shoes and I'm pretty sure she can say that word.  She especially enjoys wearing Lucy's dress up shoes, Mom's shoes and her squeaky shoeShe loves gold fish crackers, hugging her bunny, stealing food from mom and eating off the floor after she has thrown all her food off her tray.

Lydia is easy going and happy.  She is a tough cookie. I have seen her get hurt several times this week and shes just gazed at the wound, made a little  "Ow" noise, and kept playing. She has a funny little mullet that reminds me of Becca's childhood mullet and thus makes them look more alike to me.  She is a screamer. Not crying screams, just funny little yells when she wakes up so that I know she's awake-they are actually really cute. She is not quite as coordinated as her sister and still walks with one leg straightened sometimes-it looks very funny.  She loves putting things in her mouth, her binkie, having a second binkie in her hand, stuffed animals, apple juice and her own belly button.

These girls are so funny. It is so fun to see them start to interact more.  They play together, fight over toys, hug each other, feed each other. Twins are a riot.