Movers for Hire!

Need help moving boxes?

Call these girls!

Their specialty is moving empty boxes up and down stairs.

And they take very few breaks!

Service with a smile!

That's Gonna Leave a Mark

A couple of weeks ago I took the girls out to our Super Wal-Mart to get some essentials.  I had the girls sitting in opposite corners of the shopping cart facing each other.  Morgan was facing me and Madylin was facing out so I couldn't see her face.  People kept looking at my cart and "ooh"ing and saying "oh how cute."   Now, not to brag or anything but I seriously get that ALL the time with twins so I didn't think anything of it.  When I moved around the cart to get some milk from the refrigerator I saw what everyone was really "awww"ing about . . .

How can you fall asleep like that!  Needless to say, she had metal bar marks across her forehead when we left the store.

Games They Play

Twins are hard- that I will admit, but in some ways, especially at this age, they are easier.  I thought I'd share with you one of the ways that having twins is easier than having just one at a time.  These are some of the games the girls play. This is how they entertain each other during the day . . .

They love to get out all of my headbands and parade around.  Sometimes Morgan will have 4 or 5 on her head.  Madylin prefers them around her neck and calls them "wecklaces"

They love to point out things on each other's clothes.

And they like to give hugs and sit on each other's "Yap" (lap)

In our old place we had a play pen set up in our room for Morgan to take her naps in.  The girls would regularly take as many toys as they could in there and dive in after them.  They'd spend up to an hour just sitting in there playing with toys and looking at their books.

(Apparently Morgan needed some help with her reading)

They like to cuddle up in the laundry basket to watch Elmo or Mickey.

Their activities have evolved in the last couple of weeks while we have been in this house.  Now one of their favorite things to do is lay down on the stairs with their "colors" or pretend to be sleeping while each lying on their own stair.

So, as you can see- I don't usually have to do a ton of entertaining during the day.  They have each other for that!

Our Easter Sunday

I have to admit that we didn't even get the girls Easter baskets this year because our dear friend Marla took care of that for us.  Every holiday she  "anonymously" leaves a holiday  basket of all kinds of treats and outfits for the girls on our doorstep and this Easter was no exception only she left three baskets, one for each of the girls and an extra with all kinds of goodies.  We're glad we didn't get them baskets because my brother Matt and his family brought them baskets as well as their Kinser grandparents. Here are the sunglasses and bottles from their baskets that they just love.

For breakfast I made Oven Puff Pancakes from the website of my friend Judy's daughter.  La Fuji Mama is a fun food and cooking site I check out occasionally.  I put fresh strawberries on top and after the prayer that Morgan is waiting for in this next picture, we dug in.  They have a custard-like texture and are yummy!  Thanks, Rachael.

Madylin LOVES strawberries.  

Honestly though, who doesn't?

Posing on my huge kitchen island (which I love!) by the daffodils I bought at Trader Joe's.  Thanks to Judy for informing me via her blog that TJ's carries daffodils right now 10 stems for $1.29.  I bought 2 bunches and have been enjoying these for the last couple of days.  They make me smile every time I see them.

The girls enjoyed the Easter egg hunt even more than I expected.  They really caught on and they didn't get mad at each other when they were both after the same one (that was a real concern of mine!)

Sorting through the eggs with daddy.

We didn't really get good Easter pictures of the girls or the family because we were running late to church.  We were going to take some after church, but the nursery leaders in our new ward gave Madylin a sucker and she had sticky drooly stuff all down her dress (I was a little upset about that- I mean who gives a 2-yr-old candy without the parents' permission?)

These are the only pics we got- we'll have to take some good ones the next time we have the girls wear these gorgeous dresses.

This is where the pictures end because the rest of the day was extremely hectic. I hosted my first holiday dinner and we had Russell's parents and brother here as well as my parents and brother and another brother and his wife and 2 kids.  All together there were 14 of us.  It was fun to have everyone in my own home and host.  When I was almost done with everything the girls woke up from there nap and my niece informed me that I needed to go up to them because Madylin had thrown up in her bed.  Russell bathed her and I put her bedding and clothing into my own washing machine 2 doors down from the girls' room! (can you tell I'm excited about my own laundry facilities!)  Madylin seemed to be okay but wouldn't eat anything at dinner.  I made ham and green beans with bacon and my grandma's yummy rolls as well as shortcake and strawberries for dessert.  My mom brought potato salad and Russell's mom brought a fresh fruit salad and all the food was SOO good!  Halfway through dinner Madylin was fussy and wanted to sit on my lap so I let her and then she threw up again- right at the table while everyone was enjoying all the good food.  My appetite was ruined and I couldn't enjoy my dinner, but luckily we caught everything in a bowl and it was pretty much just water she regurgitated.  The rest of the evening was spent holding her and a bowl so that we were ready the 3 other times she threw up water.  Of course I still had to change my outfit 3 times because some would always get on me.  Even with all that going on, it was still such a nice Easter.  We were lucky to get to have both of our families together for a holiday and I know not many families are too keen on getting together with in-laws.  We are lucky to have such great families that get along so well.

Madylin has just started getting up to play in the last couple of hours.  All day yesterday and most of today either Russell or I had to be holding her.  She was so miserable!  I am so grateful that she is doing better now.  Hopefully we can put the sickness behind us and remember what a great Easter Sunday we had.

Farewell to Ford Park

In March we seemed to go to Ford Park a lot.  I think it was because we knew it was the last month where it was going to be right next to us within walking distance so we tried to go as much as possible.  Here are some pics of our last few visits to the park . . .

Here are Morgan and Madylin holding hands walking to the duck pond

And getting bread from Daddy to feed to the ducks who, incidentally, were not hungry that day.

Waiting for some ducks to come eat, they got bored and started eating 

the bread themselves.  Who could blame them?

The girls love this slide.  I do too because it's nice and slow and they can get up to the slide and off of it all by themselves.

Loving the swings.  They will call a swing a "wee" because that is what they say on them.

Here they are romping around the huge open field with their buddy Caiden.

Love this park and we will miss being right next door!  We've had some great times there.

Morgan's Bad Day

So I am like a month behind on posting- but I don't like doing it all at once so I'll just try to do one or two posts a day for a couple of days to catch up.

A couple of weeks ago I planned to go to the park with Christy and Caiden and I got the girls ready and did their hair all cute so that I could take pictures of them playing at the park.  The girls HATE having me do their hair, so it's a major accomplishment when I can get it cute like this . . .

So we are walking to the park, Caiden is trotting way ahead of us and I have Madylin right next to me and Morgan a couple of steps ahead of me, then Christy chasing Caiden while she is 8.5 months pregnant.  Madylin falls and catches herself with her hands and I stop to pick her up.  As I'm picking her up, Morgan keeps walking down the blacktop to the park and she falls too.  Only she doesn't catch herself with her hands- she catches herself with her face. She is crying pretty hard and bleeding and so Christy helps her up and hands her to me at which point she stops crying.  I take her back to the apartment to clean her up and Christy takes the other 2 kids ahead to the park.  The whole time I am cleaning up Morgan's face she is fine.  She didn't cry at all- just me.  It was so sad!  It's hard when your kid is hurt anyways, but when it's her cute little face it just cuts right to your heart!  We went ahead to the park and she played like nothing happened.  Here she is just a few minutes after

Needless to say- those cute pictures I wanted- well that wasn't really going to be happening on that day!

Here she is the next night.

I should have taken a picture the next day because that is when it looked the worst.  And of course it was sunday and everyone at church was giving us such looks of pity and I had to retell the story of how I let her fall a hundred times. She really was hard to look at for a couple of days and every time I did I wanted to cry.  Poor Madylin was worse.  At lunch the day it happened Madylin kept pointing to Morgan's face saying "face" "nose" in such a sad and concerned way.  We didn't show Morgan her face in the mirror because we didn't want her touching it, but poor Madylin could see it and was so worried!  Morgan just kept saying "No!" to Madylin when she was pointing to her face because she didn't understand what all the fuss was about and she didn't like Madylin pointing at her face like something was wrong with it!

The next day her face looked SO much better and it healed really quickly.  She just has a little scab on the side of her nose now and under her eye is still slightly pink if you look closely, but no one else can tell anything is wrong.  Thank goodness little ones heal fast!

Wanna know the gender?

We're In! (Sort of)

Don't have a lot of time and 0 pictures- just wanted to let you know that we are alive and have been slowing moving things from the garage into our new house and unpacking things for the last couple of days.  Before that it was all cleaning! And getting the carpet in and Russell is doing laminate flooring in the kitchen and dining room with the help of his dad.  It's finally finished (well almost) and we were able to bring the stove and refrigerator into the house yesterday.  Hooray!  My mom has been here since monday night helping me clean this place as well as clean the apartment so we could get our deposit back.   Of course I am sick now and my belly totally popped out last week so I am having a hard time doing much of anything!  Thank goodness for my mother!! She is also painting the kitchen for me since I can't be around the chemicals.  It was literally the color of dried blood before- dark red with some orange tint to it- disgusting!  We chose a soft yellow color and we all love it! It makes everything so bright and pleasant looking!  I tell you what I've never cleaned so much in my life!!! Like every inch of this place needed cleaning. I mean I'm washing walls for goodness' sake- but the end result is  so worth it.  It's becoming a home and hopefully it will be finished in a few more days.  I'm way behind on posts, too- I have to tell you all about Morgan's big ouchie and about the gender of the baby too!

Care to venture a guess at the gender?  I'll tell you all tomorrow (and if you know already- don't comment on the gender and spoil it!!)