I'm the newest "Fanpire"

So I got suckered in. I'm a bit behind, but obsessed nonetheless. I finshed Twilight and am about halfway through New Moon. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I am guessing it won't be nearly as good as the book.

Merry Christmas! 2008

Daddy and the girls!

Sydnee opening presents on Christmas morning

Sydnee in her Christmas Eve pajamas, holding the cookies she made for Santa!

We had a really nice Christmas this year. It was a lot of fun, mostly because Sydnee was old enough to really get excited about Santa coming. We really tried to teach her about the true meaning of Christmas, the Nativity and celebrating the birth of the Savior, but it's kind of hard with a 3 year old when she gets so excited about Santa and presents and such.

Christmas morning Aubree and Kilee decided to get us up at 5:45 am (I guess they thought they had to eat :)). We woke up Sydnee and went downstairs to open presents. Sydnee was so excited that she got the Barbie car she had asked Santa for. From mommy and daddy she got a leapster, fish game, and a few other things. After we finished opening presents we went to my parents house for breakfast and to open presents. We hope you all had a very nice holiday and were able to spend time with family and friends.

Jeez, I'm Gettin' Old!!!!!

It's hard to believe that I turned 33 yesterday. I really love birthdays but it pains me to have my own birthday because it means I'm another year older. As much as I wanted to avoid talk of my birthday in any way, shape or form, it was actually pretty nice day. Sloan had given me my birthday present a week earlier. I had come home from work and was getting ready to cook dinner and he asked me to go up and get the twins' binkies from their crib. I agreed but was thinking "what a jerk!", HE should go get the binkies (We call them naynay's in our house, a term coined by Sydnee when she was a baby). When I went into the twins' room, there was a beautiful, tall black lamp with a sign written in crayon that said happy birthday. What a sweetie! My parents gave me a beautiful, puffy green parka, perfect for the snowy weather and Cami gave me some really cute black shoes. All in All it was a pretty great birthday!

Kids are hilarious........

Today my visiting teachers came and while they were here, Sydnee decided to show them her Disney Princess underwear, why is it that kids love to show everybody their underwear?? LOL!

Sometimes "Our" plans get changed..........

I'm sitting here at work and I was just contemplating how different things are for our family right now than they were this time last year. I was not yet pregnant with the twins, but we were trying for our SECOND and last child, a boy of course because I already had a girl and now I wanted a boy. Everything was planned just right: We would have our second child, I would work up until the end of the pregnancy, go back after a few weeks and everything would be just dandy! Our car was just the right size for two kids, as was our house. When we found out I was pregnant in February of 2008, everything was right on track, or so I thought.
On March 19, 2008 I went to my first doctors appointment and they did an ultrasound. As the doctor looked at the screen, he said "Do you want the good news or the bad news?" I was like oh great there's something wrong with the baby! So I asked him what was wrong and he said there was two babies in there. It was worse than I thought. I said "No there's not" and he said "Yes, there is" So I asked him if that was supposed to be the good news or the bad news and he said "Both".
I think both Sloan and I remained in shock for a long time. In June when we went for the 20 week ultrasound I was sure one or both of them would be a boy, in fact I had already told my sister Jen to start getting her boy clothes ready to give me. Well, as you know it was two girls. We started out 2008 with one kid and now we have 3 but I couldn't imagine things any different now. We love our girls and now I'm not sure I would even know what to do with a boy!

What I Love about Christmas........

Other Christmas season favorites:

1.Christmas morning breakfast

2.Dreyers egg nog ice cream

3.Martinelli's sparkling cider

4. Fruitcake (weird, I know)

5.Watching my little girl see what Santa brought her.

6. Time with my family

Update on the fam!

We took the twins for their two month well baby check up today and they are growing really well! Aubree is now 8lbs. 15 oz. and 22 inches (an inch taller than her sister) and Kilee is up to a whopping 8lbs. 2oz.!! Pretty good considering she was 5lbs. 15oz. just a month ago!! It's hard to believe that they would barely eat 10 cc's of formula when they were first born. It always breaks my heart to see how hard they cry when they get their shots. Fortunately, I had my Sloan there for the first part of the appointment and my mom there for the last part. (Thanks mom!) I feel lucky that even though the twins are only two months old, they haven't gotten sick yet. Hopefully we can make it through the winter without any serious illnesses.
In other news, I am back at work! I have worked a couple of days so far and will officially start back this coming Monday. Sloan will continue to work at Cabelas on my nights off through the month of December and then quit at the end of the year.
I feel especially thankful this holiday season for all our blessings lately. I feel blessed that we are employed, that we have a home to live in, heat to heat our home, food to eat, and clothes to wear. I never thought I would be so thankful for such basic things, but with all the stories of economic hardship I hear on the news lately, I feel very blessed.

The story of the twins birth.......

The twins are 8 weeks old now. Now that things have calmed down a bit I thought I would share their birth story. Wednesday September 24 seemed like a normal day, I was uncomfortable, huge and still had 2 1/2 weeks until my scheduled c-section. My sister Jen was down from Logan visiting with her kids and Jen, Cami, and I had taken our kids to "Jump on it" that day and then we all ate dinner at my parents house. A little before 11 pm I was laying on the couch halfway between awake and asleep and Sloan had just gotten home from work about an hour earlier and was sitting on the floor in front of me watching TV. At 11:03 I felt a gentle "pop" that jolted me awake. I immediately jumped up and moved the four feet from the carpet to the tile floor and "water" came splashing out everywhere. I told Sloan my water broke and he started getting our stuff together to go to the hospital. After my parents came and picked up Sydnee and I was situated on a big stack of towels in the car we headed to the hospital. We arrived at about 11:45 pm. The labor & delivery nurse checked to make sure my water had really broken and then the next thing I knew there were several people in the room bustling all around doing things and the anesthetist came in to tell me about the spinal. Within minutes I was wheeled into the operating room. The anesthestist put in my spinal and from then on everything went so fast. At 12:38 am on September 25 Aubree Virginia came out first weighing 5lbs. 15oz. Two minutes later at 12:40, Kilee Rachel was born weighing 4lbs. 14oz. they were both 17 inches long.
We were both so happy that they were finally here! Over the next 30 hours they really struggled with eating. Because of their prematurity, they didn't have the natural born desire to suck and the effort it took them to eat caused them to burn too many calories, so on Friday night our awesome pediatrician, Dr. Wilcox opted to put them in the level II nursery (NICU) so they could receive their feedings through a tube in their nose. We were allowed to do one regular feeding every 12 hours, and when they were taking a full regular feeding, they would advance their feedings until they were taking all eight feedings on their own.
They were in the hospital for 2 1/2 weeks and came home on the day they were scheduled to be born, October 13. It was really hard having them in the hospital and really took a toll on us. I am so grateful that they are home and thriving. They are the sweetest little girls. We are also grateful for wonderful health insurance and wonderful doctors and nurses that gave them such great care. Were still not sure what the Lord was thinking when he decided to send us twins!!!!

Sometimes Sydnee gets stir crazy being in the house all day (I do too!), so lately we have been bundling up the twins and going outside for a walk or to play on the playground for a while. It's been such nice weather lately.

Obama

Just a quick note. Our president-elect voted AGAINST BANNING partial birth abortion. To learn more about partial birth abortion, go to www.allabouttheissues.org . Pretty sickening, isn't it?!

Only 3 weeks until Black Friday!!!!!!!!

One of my favorite things to do all year is go shopping on black friday, Yep I'm one of those insane people that gets up at 2:00 am to go wait at Wal-mart for all those bargains. It's not just the shopping, waiting with other black fridayers, planning out our routes is just as much fun as the shopping. I also get some really great prices and I am a sucker for a great bargain. I'm normally not a huge fan of shopping (except for grocery shopping), but black friday kind of kicks off the Christmas season for me and I love the season just as much as Christmas day itself! To find out some of the black friday deals go to www.gottadeal.com or my favorite website www.pinchingyourpennies.com and click on forums. Wal-mart issued a statement that their black friday ad will not be released until November 23rd, so I'll have to wait until then for that one.

I just thought I would let you all know that I got this free cute blog template from my friend Amy's website. She is very creative and talented. Go check it out: www.delightfuldots.blogspot.com

The twins blessing

This past Sunday we blessed Aubree and Kilee. Sloan did a great job on the blessings and it was such a special day. The girls looked beautiful. Thanks to my parents for the beautiful blessing dresses and to all of our family that attended. I am so thankful for my husband and my three beautiful girls. I never thought in a million years that I would have three girls. For those of you that know me, I really, really wanted a little boy but now I could not imagine not having my 3 beautiful princesses!

Halloween

Sydnee's preschool class had a costume parade and program for the parents. All the kids looked so cute and did a great job singing! They also had a party in class. On halloween night, Sydnee went trick-or-treating with daddy at the mall while mommy hung out at grandma and grandpa's house with the babies. Sydnee with her teacher, Miss Esparza

Cute little twinner pumpkins!

Our cute little tiger!

When I stepped outside this morning to wait with Sydnee for my mom to pick her up for preschool, I noticed the tree out in front of our house had turned completely red! It looked beautiful!, so of course I had to take a picture and post it. The leaves changing colors are my second favorite thing about fall, the first is of course halloween candy, especially clearance halloween candy after halloween is over. There's just something about snack size candy bars and treats that make them more fun and taste better than the big ones!!!

Aubree sleeps through her entire bath!!

Cute, Cute Girls!!!!!!

T

My super talented sister Cami and brother-in-law Jer designed these birth announcements for the twins. Cami made the tutus and took the pictures and Jer used his computer skills to design the announcements. I think they did an awesome job!, of course they ARE so cute because we make cute babies! Thanks again Cami & Jer!!!!

Some pics of our three beautiful girls!

Sydnee loves to go to "Jump on it" She has been there three times in the past few weeks! She has been such a good big sister to the twins. We try and make sure we make special time just for her. Things get kind of crazy with the twins but she has had Sloan & I to herself for so long, we want to make sure that she feels special.

Here are some pictures of our cute twiners! They look exactly alike except Kilee is about a pound smaller than Aubree, so we can tell by their size who's who, but just to be safe Aubree wears a purple bow and Kilee wears a pink one!

Aubree & Kilee are home!!!!!!!

Aubree and Kilee came home yesterday! Although we are happy that our whole family is together under one roof, I didn't get much sleep last night! I guess we need to get used to the fact that we will be sleep deprived from now on!

OUR TWINCESSES HAVE ARRIVED!!!!!

Our beautiful babies are finally here! Aubree was born at 12:38 am weighing 5lbs. 15 oz. and Kilee was born 2 minutes after her sister at 12:40 am weighing 4lbs. 14 oz. They were both 17 inches long. Unfortunately, they couldn't come home from the hospital with me. They are very healthy and doing well, but they weren't eating enough on their own so they have feeding tubes. Hopefully they will be able to come home in a few days. They were born on Thursday September 25 at 35 weeks 3 days.

A big thanks to my hubby!

My wonderful hubby Sloan is such a great guy! He doesn't look at my blog very often ( it's more of a hobby for me than him) but I wanted to tell him how awesome he is. He is such a hard worker. He's working 2 jobs right now and when he gets home, he comes home to cranky ole' pregnant me. He is such a great dad to Sydnee and will be to all three of our girls. On his days off he always makes sure he spends time with Sydnee and I, even though it would be easier to just catch up on sleep or do something for himself. Here are a few things that I love about him and why I am lucky to have him:
*He is a better cleaner than I am
*He is a great dad
*He is frugal and thrifty (I am the spendy one)
*He wants the best for our children
*He tries really hard to do what's right
*He can grow a beard in the blink of an eye. I love his facial hair and all his hairyness (weird, I know)
Love ya Sloaner! Thanks for all you do!

Here are a few pictures of Sydnee. She looks so cute, but I told her to pose and more than anything she just looks like she has a kinked neck! :)

Here are a couple of pictures of Sydnee on her first day of preschool. She was a little nervous that first day but now she is a pro! she just walks right in without any hesitation. She is doing really well. She is learning her letters and numbers and she's learning how to write her name. We are so proud of her.

This is kind of hard to see, but here is a picture of my 33 week pregnant belly. I am HUGE! I can't wait until these twins are here! It will be nice to be able to walk normal again. I am scheduled for a c-section in roughly 4 weeks if they don't come sooner, but the doctor thinks they will come sooner than that because I have had high blood pressure, of course, knowing my luck I will carry them straight on through! Our sweet little Sydnee has had to learn to be pretty independent since I can't do much.

In the meantime, I am going to attempt to put together a tiger costume for Sydnee for halloween. She started out wanting to be a tiger, then went to a mermaid and then wanted to be a ghost like her cousin Crew. I think I finally convinced her that I tiger is the best (because it will be the easiest for me!)

This past Sunday we had one of those rare occasions where ALL of my siblings were at my parents house, so of course we had to get a picture! I didn't think a frontal view of my pregnant belly was as bad as a side view, but as you can see from the picture, it is!

We've had one busy week......

On Tuesday, Sydnee started preschool. She has been so excited to go to school and I think she will do really well. It's hard to believe that she is growing up so fast!


This picture is hideous, but my dad thought it would be funny to take a picture of my belly. This is what 30 weeks pregnant with twins looks like.






We have had a lot of stuff going on lately. Last Friday was our 5th wedding anniversary. My parents offered to watch Sydnee so our plan was to go to Chili's to eat and then to a movie. I had an ultrasound appointment that day and unfortunately we had to wait an hour and 20 minutes at the doctors office. By the time we got done, we were starving and just went to dinner and decided to skip the movie. Oh well! Happy Anniversary to us! Love ya Sloaner!




Saturday afternoon, Sloan's mom came to visit from Idaho Falls for Sydnee's Birthday. Her birthday was Monday the 18th, but we celebrated on Sunday the 17th. We ate dinner and had cake and ice cream and presents at my parents house. Sloan's parents were also there along with Jer, Cami and their boys. Sydnee said she wanted a "mermaid" cake with Ariel on it, so that's what we got. She loved it!, especially the the star bracelet and mermaid toy that came on the cake.

This morning Sloan took Sydnee out to ride her bike. Well, I haven't seen her try to ride it since she first got it because Sloan would practice with her when I was gone to work, Well I was shocked to see how well she can ride it! She needs help turning, but she can pedal like a champ!!