Seeing Double

I am a twin and have always wanted to have twins of my own because I loved being a twin. 

One of the things that come a long with being a twin is dressing a like.  I obviously don't have twins, but that doesn't mean I can't dress my boys a like.  And when Target has a killer deal on clothes like they did this week, it makes it that much more fun to dress my boys up! (Each boys ENTIRE outfit cost less than $7!)

**As a disclaimer, I know Deagan needs a hair cut.  We'll get to that eventually. And I know it is hard to see the whole outfit in these pictures, but trying to do a photo shoot with these two is nearly impossible.  They don't ever sit still:)

10 months

Our little Kayden is 10 months old today!  Please stop growing so fast my little one!

He had his 9 month check up last week and here are his stats: (A little late, but here nonetheless!)

Weight: 18 1bs 5 oz (10-15%)

Height: 28.5 in (50%)

He is a small little one, but he is growing steadily at his own pace.

Here are some new things he does:

-Stands on his own for a few seconds

-Cruises along furniture

-Babble constantly and makes "da da da" sounds a lot.

-Shake his head no when he sees us do it; seriously the cutest thing ever!

-Claps his hands to tell us "more" "all done" or just because he is happy.  Sometimes it is hard to know what he wants!

-Climbs all the way up our stairs (with someone behind him obviously) and on to anything else he get up on

-He is a very easy going baby for the most part.  We take him to the Y while we work out, and they always tell us what a great little baby he is.  We know:)

-Takes 2 solid naps each day; one around 10 and the other around 2:30 or 3.

He is such a sweet little boy, and we are so happy that he is in our family!

This is what we do every night...

Bath time at our house is crazy.  Both boys seem to receive some sort of adrenaline shock from being in the tub, and it is just madness.  While it is kind of wild during this time, it is also a fun time because the boys make each other laugh the whole time.  It is so darn cute to see them play and laugh together!  Kayden always gets out first, but as soon as he has his diaper on, he crawls back over to the tub to play with Deagan a little more.  He does this every night, and he laughs the whole time because Deagan inevitably spits water in his face or does something else that is crazy and that gets water everywhere.

This is what we do every night...pretty fun right??

I am getting there...

This past weekend I felt defeated.  I felt like I was doing everything wrong, and I came home from church mentally tired and frustrated.  Serving in leadership positions can be so wearing, and some days I find myself really unsure if I can do it another day.  I was not born with a backbone you see, so I find myself letting people walk all over me and it frustrates me that I can't just say what I am thinking! I don't want to be rude about things, but I just want to be honest.  (I am going to work on that as well I think this year.)

I was telling my mom about some things, and she gave me some really great advice, "Don't try to fix it all right now; just keep working on things!" Just what I needed to hear.  I tend to try to "fix" everything all the time because I don't like to see things broken.  It frustrates me.  But I know what my mom said is right.  I can't fix everything at one time, so I going to try and stop doing so! Easier said than done right? But I will get there.

I am grateful for really awesome and wise mothers aren't you? I hope I can be the kind of mom to my kids as my mom is to me.  Then I will know I am doing ok:)

I am thankful for Saturdays

I love Saturdays; especially this Saturday.  We all slept in and then went to the YMCA to work out, and now we have just been relaxing this afternoon.  I normally stressful myself out trying to get the whole apartment clean, all the laundry caught up, and the shopping done for the following week, but I decided today I want to just relax and enjoy this time with my little family. I really should do this every Saturday because I don't like the way I feel when all I am doing on Saturday is cleaning.  It gets tiring and I find myself being really grumpy by the end of the day because all that hard work gets destroyed so quickly. Such is life with kids!  Not to say that I won't clean eventually, just not right now.

We have all been sick off and on since Thanksgiving, and that plagued us this week again.  On Tuesday, Kayden threw up which made for an eventful day considering my extreme phobia of vomiting.  We all seem to be feeling much better, and I am grateful for that.  We had a couple of days this week where the kids and I did not leave the house because they were sick, and those made for VERY long days.  I read somewhere that as a mom you don't have to love the sickness but love that you are able to help your children feel better.  I tried to remind myself of that multiple times through out those days, but they were still very long days.

I made it through my first week of working early mornings at the daycare, and it was a pretty good week there! I am actually surprised that I have positive feelings towards my work.  I don't why I am surprised by that, but I am.  I really like the kids that I work with, and it was just fun.  I am only there 2 hours/day which I think helps a lot with not getting burned out since it is such a short period of time.  I have been waking up at 5:00 am so I can do a short workout, study my scriptures, get ready, and nurse Kayden before I leave at 6:45.  I actually have not minded getting up that early either surprisingly. (This week is just full of surprises!) I am exhausted by 9 am, but I normally am up later than I want it seems trying to get stuff caught up around the house.  I need to just learn to go to bed early, but I am in this habit of trying to get too many things done once the kids are in bed.  I will learn eventually I guess.

Greg started school again, and it is nice to be back into that routine even though I do miss having him home.  I tend to be more motivated when it is just me and the kids home for some reason.  This is his last semester!! He has a few promising jobs or internships for when he is done, so fingers crossed that something works out!

I have a few goals or things that I want to work on for the following week:

-I want to institute an internet fast for Sundays.  The internet is so addicting and so full of great information, but it gets overwhelming don't you think? I think that by doing this I will be able to really feel the Spirit of observing the Sabbath day more.  I look forward to that and to being creative with the time that we will have as a family on Sunday.

-I read a blog this past week where a woman chooses a word for each year that she focuses on, and I want to do that.  So I in the process of trying to find a word that I want to make my focus this year.  She gave example of words she has used; joy, {re} (the prefix; refocus, reform, etc), and I am drawing a blank on her other one but you get the idea.  I want to live a more focused life where I feel like I am making progress and not going backwards, which is what I have felt lately, so I am hoping this will help me to really make some progress physically, mentally, and spiritually this year.

-I am going to do more fun things with my kids this week.  Winter can really be the pits don't you think? I am tired of being inside all the time, so I am going to make an effort to get out of the house at least once a day this week with the kids and do something fun.  I am excited about this, and I know Deagan will love it.

I am looking forward to another week; as crazy as it may be!

Happy Saturday everyone!

I have to brag a bit...

This past weekend my dryer broke.  It was New Year's Eve in fact.  I started a load in the dryer before we went to a friends house for the evening, and when we came home I thought I heard the dryer going still but I thought nothing of it since I thought there is now way it would still be running. I woke up in the morning though and it was still running and it had been all night! That is when I discovered that that load I put in there was no where near being dry and it had been in the dryer for 12 + hours.  It was broken and it came at a time when we were really broke.  Not a good combination.

I immediately started to panic a bit because calling someone to come and look at it would put us out at least $150+ and that is just for them to LOOK and not actually fix the thing.  I told Greg it was broken, and he said that he would look at it and see what he could do.

Without me even having to bring it up again, he got to work, figured out the problem, and fixed it all by himself.  And through out the whole process only spent $30 compared to the close to $200 we could have spent!

I am so thrilled and completely impressed with Greg for coming to my rescue.  I am so glad I married a man as capable as him! :)

Love this book...

My dear mother gave me this book for Christmas, and I just can't get enough of it.  Dr. Laura has some pretty strong opinions and is not afraid to share them.  I find that I agree with a lot of her beliefs and stand points, and I totally agree with everything she says in here.

It can be so hard to be a stay at home mom and to get caught up in the mundane feeling of doing the same thing day after day, but it is really the best job in the world.  This book made me open my eyes to how blessed I am to be able to stay home with my kids.  It always reminded me to not just get through the days with my children but to ENJOY the days with my children.  I am by nature a neat freak and being a mom has really stretched me in this area because children just do not like to comply to that type of thing.  Having all of their toys out at one time is more like it to them! There have been days when I get so caught up in trying to keep the house clean and I find myself feeling so frustrated with my children because they are "getting in the way." Not cool right!? I have to stop myself on these days and remind myself that this is not what being a mom is all about.  It is part of it, but my main job is to love my children and to have fun with them.  They will not stay young forever, so I want to do all I can to enjoy these stages that they are in right now.

I started a job at a daycare this morning where I will only work from 7-9 in the mornings, and while I enjoyed it and I enjoyed being with those kids I missed my kids like crazy and felt guilty for being away from them.  They were with my husband, so they were in really great hands, but I still felt sad for leaving them.  I am only going to do this until Greg graduates (which is this MAY!) and then I it will be over.  That is what I keep telling myself.  We just really need some extra income right now, and this is what I can do to help.

I am so blessed to be able to stay home with my kids, and even on those really bad days I am happy that they are having bad days with me and not a daycare worker.  I am just grateful that for me and my family this works.

Home Sick So You Get an Update!

The boys and I are home sick from church today; Kayden is napping and Deagan is watching "Veggie Tales" so I thought I would catch up quick while things are quiet. It seems that we have been sharing sicknesses back and forth since Thanksgiving. Not fun! Gotta love this time of year!

Here are some more Christmas Eve Pictures:

A family "adopted" us for Christmas and gave this 4-wheeler for the boys! How fun is that! I just love Kayden's  face in this picture.

Finally got both to look at the camera!

He looks like he has been caught doing something he shouldn't doesn't he?

Driving around!

Eating a paper towel that was used to clean him up with after a meal.  Greg has a system down for cleaning him up; give him a wet paper towel and then Greg gets another one to wash him down with while Kayden is distracted sucking the water out of the other one.  Weird but it works!

Cute little feet

Christmas Morning:

Both boys did not wake up till around 8:30! Talk about great right!?

Presents by the tree

Cute little ornament

Opening presents

Climbing in Presents

 A Few things we have been doing while Greg has been on Break:

Trip to the MOST (A local science museum)

toothpick city

Always stuck in the stroller while Deagan gets to run around.  Poor guy!

Funny mirrors

"Should I go in there?"

"Why not!?"

Mom and Kayden

Having Fun!

Going to the local YMCA almost every day.  Thank goodness for an awesome kid center!

Attending an SU Basketball Game! Go SU! We figure we had to go to at least one game before we left here since their team is so good, and we are so glad we went! It was so fun and the boys did so good.

More than anything, we have just loved being together as a family.  I am not looking forward to getting back into our normal routine tomorrow, but life has to keep going! 

2011 Here We Come!

Well here we are; in 2011! I hope you all had a lovely New Year's Eve filled with yummy food and friends.  We sure did, and I am grateful to be where we are!

I like to make goals at the beginning of the year, as almost everyone does, and here are a few our goals for our family and for me individually:

-We make our blog into a book each year, so we want to focus more on keeping a record of our family on here this year.  I have been seriously slacking in keeping track of the little moments in our lives on here, and I want to do better with that so we can look back on this time in our life and have those memories preserved. So, I can not commit to updating daily, but I will try.  Weekly will probably be what it turns out to be, but we will see! Maybe life will be super exciting and funny and I will update all the time! That would be fun right!
-I am a fitness/nutrition fanatic. I am drawn to that kind of stuff and am constantly looking for a new fitness or health challenge.  I have another blog where I am going to be keeping a record of the workouts I love and the food I love and stuff like that.  Be sure to check it out through out the year.  For the month of January I am giving up sugar in the forms of sweet and desserts and what not, so this month should be interesting considering I have the biggest sweet tooth in the world. But that is why I am going to try this because I don't like feeling like I have to depend on sugar.
-I want to try to read 1-2 books each month because I truly love to read and don't do enough reading for pleasure as I should.

There are a bunch of other things I would like to improve on, but maybe thats another post for another time.

Until then, Happy New Year! May this year be filled with love and happiness!