Christmas in Montana

Christmas was wonderful this year and the family gathering was ideal.  We gathered in Montana at Josh and Lindsey's beautiful house.  The first few days were bitter cold with frozen trees and white everywhere.  It was the perfect setting for a wintery Christmas vacation!  There was plenty of time to relax and eat, and eat some more.  And best of all, no one barfed all week!  (Not until we got in the car to go home, anyway!)

Grandpa with Eloise and Mimi with Pearl

Playing with cousins made for exhausted kids!

Telling secrets.

Santa came on Christmas Eve to deliver pajamas for all the kids.  I can't say it enough; Christmas is so much more fun with kids!  I soaked it all in!

She was so concerned and excited at the same time!  I LOVE her expression here.

Classic Jonah, he was excited but tried to pretend it was no big deal!

Mimi with Santa...curious.

Playing with Legos.

Magic

I knew Jonah would catch on.  He's a smart boy and very observant.  He will not be fooled. 

We went to the Riverwoods outdoor mall to see Santa and all the beautiful lights they've hung.  Its almost like Temple Square, except without the temple.  I hoped there would be "a good Santa", comparable to the one they've got at the University Mall nearby and we were NOT disappointed!  He was the real deal and their decor was so perfect.  It was outdoors so they had a little house with fake windows (no glass), a real fireplace and fire next to Santa's chair and beautiful decorations making it look just like Christmas.  The big bonus was that they let you take your own pictures! No forced photo package!  The kids were so excited that they completely blanked on all the toys they'd been putting on their lists and Sophie's response when asked what she wanted was "a candy cane".  Wow, if only I'd known what would appease her childish Christmas desires before I'd stayed up til the wee hours of the morning on Cyber Monday trying to take advantage of deals.  Needless to say, the kids had a wonderful time.  And so did we.

This morning was our ward Christmas party at church.  We prepared bags of diapers, blankets, and books for newborns and the kids visited with Santa again.  This is when Jonah looked at me with a knowing look and said, "OH! Why is Santa just always different!"  This was your typical fake Santa with the too bright, plastic-y beard and wig that slides ever-so-slowly down his forehead, prompting the slight tugs and pulls at his hat between seeing children.  Nevertheless, Jonah played along and didn't seem too bothered by it all.

After all, don't we all turn a bit of a blind eye to reality during the holidays?  That's what makes it magical.

I'm going to stay 3 now!

Sophie woke up on Monday after we had celebrated her birthday on Sunday with family and the first thing she said in her scratchy, sleepy voice was, "I'm going to stay 3 now.  I'm not 2 anymore!"  I told her she was right (we pick our battles with three year-olds) and that we'd celebrate her real birthday on Friday.  In my mind, it would be perfectly decorated with home-made doodads from my "Kidlets" board on Pinterest, the cake would be nearly professional looking, and Sophie would get to celebrate with an exhaustingly girly tea-party thrown by her perfectly fashioned and made-up mother.  Well, we settled for a few shoddily made paper lanterns (mimicking Tangled), a few balloons, and a cake that resembled more of a weathered garden gnome than Rapunzel's tower.  But guess who couldn't have cared less!  Yep, Sophie was thrilled with her day (and I appreciated the low-key version of my fantastical visions). 

We ate doughnuts for breakfast (pink with sprinkles, of course), stayed in our pajamas nearly all day, opened presents, ate dinner at her favorite restaurant, Wendy's, had cake, and snuggled up in our pajamas together to watch How To Train Your Dragon.  It was so much fun!

Here are my thoughts of Sophie at this age:

• Loves fruit more than any other food
• Loves her chocolate milk
• Loves pink
• Loves to tell stories and whisper to herself as she plays with her toys
• Talks like a 30 year-old
• Is very animated
• Loves to do things all by herself
• Isn't afraid to let us know (often loudly) what she wants
• Favorite toys are Strawberry Shortcake and friends, Ariel, Hello Kitty paraphernalia, Smurfs, Barbies, My Little Ponies
• Loves watching Veggie Tales, Tangled, Ariel (Little Mermaid), and Strawberry Shortcake
• Her favorite article of clothing is her pink flower dress (more about this later)
• She loves her baby sisters
• She loves to play with Jonah as long as he doesn't get too bossy ;)
• She's very affectionate and likes to comfort people when they're sad
• Loves painting toe nails 
• Loves to dress up and be fancy

Playing dress-up: A little bit of Ariel mixed with a little bit of Rapunzel

Halloween 2011

Our Halloween adventures were sandwiched by bouts of strep throat (Jon and I) but that didn't keep us from celebrating to the fullest!  We trick-or-treated at Uncle Johnny's work with Mimi and Lala (and Olive and Max) and then came home to put the little pumpkins in bed so we could take Jonah and Sophie around our neighborhood. We had lots of fun and have enjoyed snacking on our kids' unappreciated chocolate treats!

Eloise and Pearl

Big Sister had to be in a picture!  Sophie with Pearl.

Our very own Sonic and Strawberry Shortcake

Our pumpkins were so radical this year.  My Hello Kitty got a crappy candle but don't let that fool you.  It was perfect.  Mario, Bowser, and Ariel.

We Love Fall!!!

A lot has been going on around here since I last posted.  Since fall is my favorite time of year, I've tried to do lots of fun fall activities and we've definitely been busy having fun!

Jonah's school went to Pumpkinland on a field trip so we took the whole family along for the ride.  We went through the corn maze and we were all happy that the babies heads were still attached despite all the jostling in the stroller.  The kids played and we got some little pumpkins to paint before we left.

I saw some great ideas for painting pumpkins on Pinterest here so I HAD to try it.  I cut my stencil out of regular computer paper (it only lasted through the one painting job but that's all I needed) and used a pearl white paint underneath and black and gold metallic for the stencil.  I love how it turned out!  Sophie smothered her pumpkin with pink and purple while Jonah opted for the more manly colors like blue and green and black.  Jon, being the perfectionist that he is, had to "erase" his design several times before being satisfied with the Gumba Head and Babomb (Mario characters).

Gardner Village in West Jordan is such a fun place to go and even more fun during Halloween!  This place was so crowded with people dressed as witches and enjoying the fun activities they had.  I was completely exhausted by the end of that outing and realized I may have bitten off more than I could chew with taking all four kids without Jon.  Luckily, I have a very helpful mother-in-law who helped tremendously!

Waiting for the hay ride to the witch's village.

I HAD to throw in pictures of the girlies.  Eloise is above and Pearl is below.  They were SO good during our outing.

I bought a caramel apple at the candy store at Gardner Village and decided we needed to make it a tradition to make them at home each fall.  I had the hardest time finding the sticks to put in the apples but my resourceful and brilliant husband came up with a plan that worked just as well.  He used the skinny, bamboo skewers and broke them in half and doubled them up before shoving them into the core.  The kids went with the classic plain caramel but Jon and I got a little creative and added mini chocolate chips and toffee bits to ours.  They were heavenly!

And to continue with the dessert making, I seized the opportunity to make dessert for Sunday dinner because I was craving my Paula Deen's pumpkin cheesecake which you can find the recipe for here.  I watched her make it last year on her show and was drooling by the end.  It IS as good as it sounds.  I never need a plain pumpkin pie again.  The kids liked it too!

We've been in costume alllll month long!

Jonah had a Halloween parade at school last week and wore his Sonic costume proudly.  They paraded around the room, sang some spooky songs, and had a party in their classrooms.  He is obsessed with Sonic the Hedgehog.

Jon's plans to run the Halloween Half Marathon last Saturday were dashed to pieces when his training came to an end due to foot problems.  He decided it was best to stop training and let it rest and let me run it instead.  It was so much fun to be with my mom and sister and I was pretty pleased with my time (1:54) considering I hadn't trained for it and had twins 3.5 months ago!  I'm so very sore today, though.

Happy Halloween!

3 months goes fast

It has already been 3 months since our baby girls were born.  I can't believe how fast time goes.  They're so fun and such good babies.  They're sleeping 11 hours at night and are such a delight during the day! 

People often ask me if they're different at all and up until they started interacting more, they really were identical in every way!  Recently, though, I've noticed a few differences:

• Pearl loves to talk and coo when she's tired.
• Eloise laughs very easily
• Pearl fights her binky
• Eloise is stubborn while falling asleep at night
• Pearl is an escape artist with her swaddling blanket
• Eloise is round and Pearl is tall

I'm excited to see more differences as they grow.  We love them so much!

Always the wide eyes!

Our brood

A little sunshine left

I took the babies outside yesterday to take in the last bit of warmth from the summer sun.  You'd think I'd be doing that quite often but the truth is that they still sleep a good portion of the day (and night).  They're up to eat, give a few smiles and coos, and then nestle back into their swaddlers for naps.  They're wonderful babies.  No complaints from this momma. 

We were outside for about ten minutes; enough time to take a few pictures.  Then they snuggled up to us and passed out. 

Princess Pearl

Mamou and Pearl

Pearl and Eloise

2 Months and stuff

Our baby girlies are 2 months old already (more like 2.5 as I post this)!  It's gone so fast and they're so big already!  They had their 2 month well-check and Eloise was 11 pounds and Pearl was 10 lbs 11 oz.  They coo and smile all the time.  Some of the things I'm enjoying most with these beauties are their smiles, coos, big eyes, snuggles, their long sleep stretches (sometimes 9 hours!!), and always having one to hold!  I can't imagine that in just a short time they'll be rolling over...then talking...then walking!!  Slow down!

Yes, I have a double stroller...3, in fact, but what I need is a triple or even a quad!

We took them this last weekend to get their ears pierced.  They look so cute!  It was heart-breaking but they were fine after a minute and haven't even noticed since.  I keep thinking of what it will be like when my three girls (three!!!) are bigger.  I'll never be left wanting a shopping partner!  I hope they're my best friends just like I am with my mom and sister.

We're still working on getting core strength enough for the Bumbo.  We didn't sit like this very long. :)

Pearly Girl

Miss Eloise

Big Brother snuggles

I've been running again and it feels great to be out pounding pavement.  It has been hard building mileage and strength again but last weekend I was able to run 6.5 miles and felt pretty good afterwords.  I gained 60 pounds with this pregnancy and so far I've dropped 50.  You do the math!!  I can't wait to wear my jeans this fall.  It's been great having a weight-loss partner and Jonathan has lost just as much as I have since I've taken an active role in my fitness level (lost 10 pounds since having to try.  I lost 40 pounds without trying!).