Little People

I am constantly entertained and kept busy by the little people in my house. They have way more energy than I will ever have. Each day goes by so fast and then before I know it the week is over. Here are some pictures so far from the week.

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to eat dinner. They are fussy from about 5:00-10:00 pm and so they usually require being held.

Tummy time usually turns into nap time.

I love their smiles. They aren't that often yet and they are quick so its hard to catch them on camera.

Kaden forgets some days that he is no longer the baby anymore. He likes trying out the babies' stuff. This is how I found him Monday morning.

Lynnlee and James have been begging me to get out the box of winter clothes. Then they played dress ups after. This is what Lynnlee came up with.

You can never have too many pictures of the Minis.

They are mesmerized by the ceiling fan.

Swaddled up and getting ready to go to the crib for nap time.

One more of tummy time just because they are so cute.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Miller Motorsports Park

Last weekend Marshall won tickets to the Miller Motorsports Park but he was going to be gone to a camp out. Grandpa Dan came to the rescue and took James to the races there. James couldn't stop talking about it afterward.

Sisters Night

Not only was I so lucky to have a sister's night last night but they fed the Minis in the night so I could have a full night of rest. It was amazing! (Marshall was at a scout camp out) It's crazy how tired you get after only getting up to 5 hours of sleep a night for almost 7 weeks. Sleep deprivation is not my favorite stage of having babies.

I'm so blessed to have great sisters! We had a good time having dinner, watching a chick flick, and watching funny clips online.

Thank you Ali and Betsy!!!

Lynnlee's New Bob

Lynnlee has loved her long hair. Tangled has been one of her favorite movies so she always talks about having Rapunzel's hair. I don't mind her long hair as long as she lets me do it but that is always a battle. Her friend Emma cut her hair short and I think that helped Lynnlee decide she wanted to cut it. Plus, Tangled isn't her favorite anymore so that also helps.

Here is before:

Here is it after:

She looks older. I told her I thought she looked like a 6-year-old and she told me she thought she only looked like a 5-year-old.

It is the perfect hair cut for this busy time for us. Everything revolves around feeding the Minis. Lynnlee has really enjoyed feeding Sienna lately.

James and 1st Grade

James is officially a 1st grader. His first day went smoothly and he loved it. It was pouring rain that morning so we drove him to the bus stop. I'm not going to lie, I felt a little sad sending him away for the day. I think Lynnlee was sad too.

I loved my family tradition growing up of my mom making chocolate chip cookies for us on our first day of school. Then we would come home and eat cookies and talk about our day. I want to start a similar tradition with my kids so we decided to go out for ice cream. James told us all about his day while we licked our ice cream cones. He told us how there are some friends in his class that were in his class last year. His favorite time of the day is lunch and recess of course. They had an assembly and there was a real owl there so they could learn about their school mascot. I think its going to be a great year.

James's 6th

James turned 6 this month! It was fun to see how excited he was leading up to his birthday. Then the night before he couldn't fall asleep because he was so excited. I told him to stay in bed in the morning so he could have breakfast in bed. That morning he woke up and patiently stayed in bed until Kaden and Lynnlee woke up. Then we all went in and sang Happy Birthday and he was so happy. Then he asked us what took us so long. It made us laugh because I don't blame him for being impatient. He had to wait all year for this.

He opened his presents in bed and then played with them all morning.

That afternoon he got to take a friend with him to Hang Time. He chose Camden and then of course the rest of us went too. Everyone had a good time!

He wanted to go to dinner at the Peanut Place a.k.a. Texas Roadhouse. Yum! Grandma and Grandpa Lowry joined us. It was nice to have their help. The Minis slept the whole time but the olders took about 2 trips each to the bathroom. Marshall and I switched off taking them. It was nice to have extra hands around while one of us was at the restroom. The staff gave a birthday shout out to James and he got to sit on the saddle. It was cute watching him yell "Yee Haw" in his loudest kid voice.

The Minis stayed asleep in their car seats.

After dinner went home for cake and ice cream. Leave it to me to forget to buy candles. We had a number one and five candles so we used our addition skills to make 6.

It's always funny when you want to take a pictures of your child and you ask him to smile and these are the different expressions you get. I liked what Marshall said, James is trying out his 6-year-old face.

Granite Flats

If we didn't have 3 older kids it would be easy to stay home all the time with the Minis. James, Lynnlee and Kaden keep us going and doing other activities even if it means more work and planning. 

We love to camp but haven't been able to go this summer yet. We decided to do a trial run up American Fork Canyon. It's close to home so if we needed to cut out early we could or I could always go home with the Minis if needed. We found a great campsite at Granite Flats. It was so beautiful and the temperatures were perfect. There were little trails all around camp that James, Lynnlee and Kaden had fun exploring.

The Minis hung out at camp and were really good.

This huge granite rock was next to our campsite. James and Lynnlee had fun climbing on it. I was really surprised they weren't more afraid.

Kaden was so messy and dirty the whole time. He's all boy for sure and in this picture he had eaten Cheetos and played in the dirt so his hands were so gross.

We went for a walk around the camp ground after dinner and then put the Minis in the trailer on James's and Lynnlee's bed.

After everyone came in for the night we moved the Minis and they slept in the travel baby bed.

 

The older kids slept great. There was room in the trailer for the pack n play too so Kaden slept in there. The Minis were a little fussy but did sleep the majority of the night. It was definitely a lot of work but I think everyone had a good time.

Fair Days

It wouldn't be summer without going to fair days in Heber. James and Lynnlee get really excited for the parade and carnival.

The Three Musketeers were born days apart 6 years ago and have so much fun together. They ran around the carnival and went on all the rides with each other.

Lynnlee and Kaden were buddies.

Here are all the cousins, except Jack, ready for the parade to start. I'm glad they all get along so well. Jack sat by the adults and held Sienna. He is so cute with her.

Marshall drove this cool yellow car in the parade in front of the band my Dad is in.

They are called the M&Ms.

Kids in a Row

We were having fun taking 1 month pictures with the minis and decided to throw all the kids in a row. It will be fun over the years to take more of these and see the changes (when we can find all 5 of them and get them to cooperate, of course).

Double Double

Having twins is fun but it's definitely double the work. They eat 7 times a day so I am feeding babies 14 times a day. When they sleep at night they are very fussy and switch off which one is fussy. It's like they have plotted against me and take turns each hour being fussy. Just when you think the one is settled the other gets fussy and back and forth. I had them sleeping together but now I have moved them to their own cribs hoping they will won't wake each other up so much.

I used to do laundry once a week and now I am doing wash every other day and sometimes every day. This is the pile of burp cloths and it isn't even all of them. We go through 14 burp cloths a day. They are both spitty and get the burp cloth fairly dirty with each feeding so we usually get a new one for the next feeding.

We use about 18-26 diapers a day. I spend a total of 70 minutes pumping every day and 7 hours feeding. (Each feeding takes about an hour) 

I've gotten good at holding these two different ways so I can carry them at the same time. This way is the hardest but nice to burp them at the same time.

One Month Minis

The Minis are one month old. It's hard to believe all of the changes that have taken place in the last month. There are so many thoughts that come to my mind everyday about having these two in our family. When everything goes smoothly then having twins doesn't seem to hard. There are the days when nothing goes right and my other kids are difficult and I wonder how I'm going to do this long term. Thankfully everyday isn't crazy and we get by.

It's fun seeing Sienna more awake at feeding time.

Taggart is still pretty sleepy most of the time.

Sienna had to wait for me to pump so she could eat and she wasn't happy about it but waited patiently.

Tummy time.

The newness has worn off and my older 3 don't ask to hold the babies as often. After one month of changes, Kaden is now adjusting and making life hard for the rest of us. He's been in a really bad hitting phase where he hits everyone. He also won't stay in bed at night. We set up the pack n play in his room and he sleeps there for naps and bedtime. Hopefully he will adjust soon.

I'm glad these two came during the summertime. We haven't had to go anywhere and can stay home all day. It will get more crazy when school starts.

Sisters

Lynnlee has her own room and she likes it but doesn't like being alone at night. I told her she can share a room with Sienna as soon as Sienna gets older. Lynnlee held Sienna in her bed for a few minutes last night.