Hiding In The Bush's

11 June 2012

Princess Sophie

Ah, Sophie. She's one sassy-pants princess! Boy was she excited to be invited to a real princess tea party this month. Our cute neighbor turned five and her parents threw a darling garden party in their back yard. Sophie dressed in her favorite princess dress from Mimi, threw on her Rapunzel wig, and a few accessories--because what's an outfit without the perfect accessories?! She looked perfect and was thrilled to give her friend the Rapunzel treasure box she found...and really wanted to keep. Those princess shoes were pretty, but slightly difficult to walk in so Mommy carried her across the street to the party. She had a ball.

28 May 2012

10 Months

Have I mentioned what a joy it is to have twins? I'm seriously in love with these babies and everything about them. My sister-in-law told me the other day that a baby's face causes endorphins to be released in adults. Oh my, how this is true! My heart practically melts when I see them. I don't mean to brag but goodness, Pearl and Eloise are the best babies. They hardly fuss unless they're hungry or tired and even then, they're easily soothed.

At this point it's still difficult for anyone outside the family to tell them apart. Pearl's face is a bit narrower and Eloise has round cheeks but that's about all you get. It used to be that Eloise was the mellow one (for a few months) but she's caught back up and their personalities are very similar. Eloise falls asleep a little easier at night while Pearl sometimes fusses a bit before giving up and closing her eyes. They both love eating, just like Mom and Dad, and have managed to keep the rolls that Sophie and Jonah so quickly got rid of.

Eloise crawls and Pearl still prefers her one-armed army crawl. They've discovered the kitchen cabinets and drawers, thereby causing Grandpa Bush to spend an entire day installing baby-proof latches.

25 May 2012

A Graduate

We're so proud of our Jonah Boy. He is now officially a preschool graduate. I can't believe he'll be heading off to kindergarten this fall. I've tried not to worry too much about the politics and issues with the public school system and have decided to be a little more relaxed about his first year of school. Let kids be kids, right? I am a little worried about him getting bored as he's already reading very well and even reads the scriptures for us at night. He's extremely verbal and intelligent and I hope he feels challenged enough to enjoy learning.

We loved Jonah's teacher this year and the school was wonderful. He felt comfortable there since he went to the same school last year. When I asked Jonah about his graduation he said he felt pretty proud being a graduate just like Daddy was last year.

He would often come home these last couple of months practicing his songs for his final program. The repertoire included songs like "Skinamarinky Dinky Dink" and "Ants Go Marching" among other favorites. He was baffled that I knew the words to some of them and asked, "Hey! How do you know that song, Mom?!"

Jonah's favorite things to do right now are play outside with his friends, ride his bike, and build Legos. From the moment his breakfast is done, he's out the door and usually only comes back in for lunch and dinner. Thank goodness for a wonderful neighborhood with great kids and parents.

Jonah with is friends Ole (left) and Alex.

Tug o war with the teachers

Sophie cracks me up. She models things so seriously. This reminds me of a picture from the '90s.

She loved field day as much as anyone

Jonah with Ms Wendy

09 April 2012

Easter 2012

We celebrated Easter with that traditional egg hunt with the neighborhood kids, dyed eggs, and took family pictures with our coordinating Easter-ware. I love being able to celebrate holidays like a kid. It makes things much more exciting and gives me an excuse to do all the fun things I used to do as a kid. It's even more fun watching my own kids enjoy it all.

My little fashionista

I love this picture. It reminds me of a picture my dad took of my mom, sister, and me when we were little. We all wore pink dresses. I wanted one with my girls.

05 April 2012

9 Months

Eloise and Pearl have reached 9 months. They've been out of the womb just longer than they were in. The ladies in my twins forum call this the "In/Out Day". My girls were born at 37 weeks and 5 days so their In/Out Day was March 25, 2012.

Both girls are scooting, sitting up, and love eating baby foods. No matter what their moods, bath time is always a happy time, albeit a tricky one trying to wrangle to squirmy, slippery babies. Thank goodness for Jon and his amazing willingness to help me with the kids. We're truly equal partners in raising our children and I love him for it.

25 March 2012

I mustache you a question...

We celebrated Jonah's fifth birthday yesterday by inviting his cute little school and church friends to a Mario party. I created this invitation in Photoshop and had them printed in an hour so I could have them delivered in time. This was my first time throwing a party for one of my kids. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun and totally worth it!

Jonah is really big into Mario and crew, and also Sonic the Hedgehog. Since his party and cake ideas changed almost daily up to the time I started planning, I decided to finally stop asking what he wanted and just go with the last option mentioned. Mario.

My plan was to have the entire party outside to spare my in-laws beautiful house from inevitable disaster and thank goodness the weather was on my side. I couldn't have ordered up a more beautiful day!

We made Mario and Luigi visors from one of my Pinterested ideas found here. They turned out so cute the kids loved them! We drew Mario and Luigi mustaches and the kids played until everyone was ready for the Yoshi Egg Hunt. I pulled the kids aside and told them a story about how Yoshi came the night before Jonah's birthday and left a bunch of his eggs in our front yard and they had to go find them. I put a couple of surprise tickets in a couple of the eggs and the kids that found those got prizes (which I picked up at the dollar spot at Target).

Making visors.

We popped Goomba balloons (brown balloons that I drew Goomba faces on), smashed a pinata, ate cake, and opened presents. I considered the event a success and sent all the kids home on a sugar high. No doubt they all crashed hard just like my kids a short time later.

Playing with friends.

This is my favorite! "Mario!!"

My cake this year was much easier to decorate. I bought brownie bites from Costco and frosted them individually to create an "8 Bit Mario" cake. I found the idea here. It turned out really great and even my older nephews got a kick out of it!

Building Legos with Daddy.

When Jonah woke up yesterday morning, we sang Happy Birthday immediately and when we were finished Soph said, "Mom, is I'm 4 yet?" She asks me this every few days and I suppose she will until November comes. :)

21 March 2012

March

Has it come to this? The titles of my posts have been whittled down to merely the current month. I'll let it be, for now. Hopefully I'll find the time to put another post up this month and I'll be sure to have a super-creative title! You don't care. I know.

We've had some wonderful news this month. Jon has been hired by a company here in Orem. We're thrilled to be employed and be moving forward again. It's been a very difficult 18 months and I haven't said much about it because it was easier not to go there at all. All I can say is that it's terrible to watch your loved one suffer after every rejection during the job search. But after many prayers and much fasting I have come to terms with the fact that Heavenly Father's plan is not always what we envision for ourselves--a lesson I've learned a time or two and have often been reminded. I know there's a master plan and our trials are the only way to progress to where we need to be to accomplish what He has in store for us. So I'm grateful for our learning experiences.

Meanwhile, the little Bushes have been growing and changing and I love to witness it all. In a way, Jon's unemployment has been a blessing (See!! Look how positive I can be!!) because he's been able to be with me while Eloise and Pearl have grown their first year. We've experienced all the fun things together whereas if he were working full-time, I'd only be recounting the day's events to him instead of him being there.

Here are some milestones:

Pearl cute her first tooth a few weeks ago and a week later, Eloise cut her first 2 teeth. This means Mommy gets nervous during nursing sessions. (Ouch!!)
Both girls and learning new sounds and mouth tricks, sticking out tongues, "Dada", "Babababa", etc.
The other day they both got up on all fours for the first time (in the same minute, if you can believe it. I'm always astonished at their synchronization!)
Pearl's favorite toy is the butt cream because she knows how to open the lid (prompting a consultation with the poison control website...don't worry! It's not bad.) She was seriously offended when I took it from her today before her nap time. I love seeing their personalities develop!
Eloise's favorite toy is a wipe. She likes to chew on them...something I don't condone but don't make to big a deal.
Summary: I'm not sure why I invest in real baby toys since all they want are NON baby toys.
The girls LOVE eating their food and I have fallen in love with the new squeezable baby food. The flavors are awesome and they're so very convenient. I've invested in the spoons that attach directly to the pouches and I must say it's the best invention since sliced bread.

Jonah and Sophie are the best big brother and sister. They love feeding their babies snacks and making sure they're happy. They fight over who gets to talk to which baby in the car. Eloise and Pearl love their big brother and sister except for a few moments of panic when the affection becomes more painful than comforting. Sophie still can't help herself and often "loves too hard".

Eloise and her tongue

We're on the move!

Pearl is always "stunned"

What a beauty!

Happy Eloise!

So precious.

I love this picture. They eyes are always wide open. It's a Green Family trait, I suppose. All 4 of my kids have been like this.

Bumbos at dinner time.

Watching Dora in the morning. Eloise and Soph.

My beautiful Sophie Girl.

06 February 2012

7 Months and Oh-So-Sweet

My angels turned 7 months yesterday. This year is going by entirely too fast and I'm finding myself scrambling to enjoy every little moment! It's so bittersweet seeing my babies grow. The new things are so exciting and fun but I desperately miss the days when they'd sleep constantly, balled up in the fetal position on my chest.

I realize just how lucky I am and just how spoiled I am and I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father has blessed me with the most wonderfully mild-mannered babies. It's probably all a plot to keep me having more.

Their little personalities are starting to emerge and I love picking out little differences. For the most part, they're very similar and take turns being the fussier or calmer one. I think Pearl is starting to be the sassier of the two. She has more extreme moods--serene and serious one moment and feisty and hyper the next. Eloise is pretty even-keeled. She is always happy and quick to give the biggest smiles. Pearl loves sticking out her tongue and blowing raspberries. She also learned to click her tongue recently and loves to copy me when I do it. Eloise is slightly plumper and just recently passed Pearl up in height.

When things get overwhelming, I amaze myself by multitasking like a madwoman. Our potential rises with our responsibility. All we have to do is commit.

Pearl, Eloise.

04 February 2012

From the Phone

I've loved having a new phone that can actually take decent pictures when I don't want to miss the shot by running to get my Nikon. These are from January.