18 Months

The girls turned 18 months this week.  Lots of milestones that come with their 1/2 birthday this year.

They were able to start attending Nursery at church.  Best day for me!  Sacrament meeting was a nightmare that day.  Usually they're pretty good about reading books and not being too whiny or wiggly.  Well they were fighting and all Siena wanted to do was get off the bench and run.  Needless to say we ended up in the hallway after only 10 mins.  I was thinking, 'good thing they are going to nursery or I would just go home.'  We dropped them off and the nursery teachers were so good to just take over and told us to just leave.  So we did.  Aria was hysterical but only for a couple minutes if that and then they were fine and stayed the entire 2 hours.  I was so proud of them.  I sat in Sunday school thinking 'I can't believe I did 18 months of church with twins.'  They are going to love their nursery class and hopefully they continue to go like they did this week.

They also had their 18 month check up.  Shane couldn't go so I took my mom along with me.  Boy was I glad she was there.  I thought I could maybe handle them both but when I saw how upset Aria was just looking at the nurse, I knew I couldn't do it alone.  This is the first time I realized they know where they are and what is going on.  As soon as we started getting Aria undressed she freaked out.  I had to pry her out of my arms to put her on the scale.  Then I got her calmed down only to have the nurse walk in the room and it started all over again.  Same thing when she saw the doctor.  I felt bad she was so freaked out. They had a great check up.  The doctor always has some great advice on how to handle children their age and it was good to hear they are on track for just about everything.  The one concern I have is that they still aren't talking much at all.  She said they are behind but twins usually talk late and that they are doing everything else really well (interacting, understanding, etc.)  so she wasn't that concerned.  She did say they hold firm to the fact that they need to be saying 50 words by age 2...so we have our work cut out for us.  I keep thinking it's just going to click one day and they will take off with their speaking, so we'll see.  They didn't get any shots this time because we were 1 day early (bugged that they didn't schedule the appointment correctly.)  So they'll get their last set of shots at their 2 year appt.  Strange to think I'll be back with a new baby before the girls go back for their 2 year. appt.

Here are their stats:
Siena:
Height -  33.5 inches - 95%
Weight - 24 lbs - 50%
Head - 50%

Aria:
Height - 32 inches - 65%
Weight -  22.5 lbs - 25%
Head - 50%

Siena is turning into miss independent.  She wants to do everything by herself...already??  She wants to sit in the big chairs, she is trying to walk up and down stairs without crawling up them, she likes to get down and run no matter where we are.  She has the cutest little mischievous smile from time to time.  Her temper tantrums have gotten better over the last week but she still thinks she has the right to anything she sets her eyes on, as in...my iPhone, anyone's laptop, our video camera, etc., etc.  It's a constant struggle to keep things out of her eye sight.

"Can you fold your arms?"

Aria is my sensitive girl.  She also has her own opinion and definitely lets you know when she doesn't agree with you.  She's a mommy's girl and loves to be held and many times will still bring me books and sit on my lap for a long time just playing.  She loves to run around as well but you can see she's a little more cautious about it.  For instance when we go on walks, they run down the sidewalk and all of the sudden Aria will see a big crack or even the cement color will change and she'll stop, analyze whether she can move forward and then slowly step onto it and test it out.  As soon as she is there she starts running again.

"Where are your toes?"

Their favorite activity these days is chasing each other.  They love to climb up our stairs and run from one end of the hallway to the other screaming and laughing at each other.  Sometimes they run together, other times they run from opposite ends and pass each other. 

Since it's been so warm this week we've been taking them on walks and instead of putting them in a stroller like we had to do last year, we just let them run.  On one of our walks the girls saw a neighbor's cat.  You've never seen them so excited chasing that thing until we were almost in their backyard.  Siena was signing cat the entire time and Aria was trying to pet it.  They had a hard time turning around and leaving it only to hear it meow behind us a few houses later.  The girls acted like it was Christmas all over again.  It followed us almost the entire way home. 

Yesterday when we got home from the doctor's office I took them into our backyard to run around.  We don't have one toy or thing to do in our backyard and you should've seen how excited they were.  They ran around the grass yelling and laughing for a long time.  You would've thought we had them in prison all winter long.  They are going to love being outdoors this summer.  Now whenever we go into the garage to get in the car, they don't walk to the car like they used to, they walk to the garage door that leads outside and just stand there, probably hoping I'll open it for them.

 They've been practicing walking up and down stairs and this one that falls onto grass is perfect for them and they practice on this step over and over and over again.  And then sometimes they chicken out and just go down backwards, or in splits like Siena is in this picture.

One other funny thing is Aria has always hated touching grass.  I  keep thinking she'll grow out of it but after all winter she still remembers.  If she is running and falls down she lifts her hands and sometimes feet off the ground and whines until I come stand her up.  She refuses to put her hands on the grass to pick herself up.

1/2 Birthday

I'm pretty sure I've posted before about how much I love my half birthday.  I always celebrate it and love an excuse to celebrate something.  Usually I don't really do anything but this year ended being a great birthday.  I've found someone that loves their half birthday as much as I do...and she happens to be related to me and we happen to share the same birthday...which means we also share the same half birthday.  My niece Kayla.  It just so happened that she was in town this weekend so we had her and her family over for dinner to celebrate our half birthdays.  We even made cookies and put a candle in for each of us. 

When she was at my parent's house earlier in the day she asked my mom why she doesn't have anybody's half birthday's written on her calendar...lol...she really takes after me.  Love you Kayla, thanks for coming over and celebrating our half birthdays together.

In other good news, I've finally convinced Shane that I am really serious about celebrating my half birthday and I came home from work with some pretty and colorful flowers waiting for me.  Thanks for putting up with my crazy ideas! :)

Triplet Cousins

There are pregnancy announcing videos flying around our family.  I showed my family a video of the girls signing to announce our pregnancy.  Then my brother showed a video disguised by his latest and greatest smart phone purchase (finally!) to announce they were pregnant.  So when my sister Lori was in town last month and told us she had a video to show us, I told her 'Lori, every time someone shows a video, it's announcing they're pregnant.'  I kind of thought maybe but didn't really think she was...well she is.  She announced she's pregnant as well.

 In order of due dates from left to right.

So even though all these announcements came over about 6 weeks time...it ends up we're all due within 9 days of each other.  It's going to be a crazy with newborns around here.  It will be interesting to see what order they're born in and how close we end up having them.  I don't think there are any other pregnancy announcements coming from our family since all my other sisters claim to be done...we'll see.  They better start brushing up on their video making skills just in case.

It will be interesting to see what we all have.  I can already picture them running around all over the place at family dinners.

Congrats to all of us, I'm excited to be pregnant with both of you and really excited to have more cousins my kid's ages.

Due Dates
Sheri - August 2, 2013
Whitney - August 5, 2013
Lori - August 11, 2013

Binky Breaking Part 2

Remember this post....I can't believe it was over a year ago.  Look at how cute and little they were.  Well I knew the day would come I would need to re-do the binky breaking since that only lasted about a month I think.  Well, it came this last weekend.  I want them broken of their binky well before the baby comes, I'm hoping they will start talking more and it was just time since they're about to turn 18 months.  We waited until after our trip to St. George and then had to wait for a time when we would have the girls ourselves as to not impose this on a babysitter to enforce while they were figuring out their life without binkies.

I may have shed a couple tears talking to Shane about it (I know, I'm pregnant) but as I said to him with tears in my eyes... 'they just love their binkies sooo much, it's seems mean.' lol, I'm a freak, I know. Pretty much I had to be binky broken right along with the girls.  As Shane said at the end of the weekend, you may have cried more this weekend then the girls.  It was a long weekend for me and I don't know why but was so emotional about it all and just sad that I couldn't help my girls and they just had to figure this out on their own.

So here's how it went.  I made Shane put them to bed the first night without the binkies while I was at a baby shower.  I was shocked when I came home at 9pm and it was silent.  I thought for sure one of them would still be hysterical. Shane proceeded to tell me that they didn't protest at all! One gave one little whine and then it was silent. All night I kept waiting for them to try and find it and wake up and freak, but they didn't. About 5:30am that morning for about an hour they were both awake whining and then would go to sleep, then wake up and whine then go back to sleep but it wasn't hysterical or anything. Enough to keep me awake but not too bad at all.  

After the first night, it ended up being a long weekend.  Siena adjusted to sleeping without it pretty fast and didn't have much of an issue.  Aria had to cry herself to sleep at night once and for a nap once and then would wake up early in the morning and moan for about an hour before falling back to sleep.  Now she is doing fine at sleeping again and all is well with her.  

Siena on the other hand has had the hardest time during the day.  Her temper tantrums have increased in frequency, duration and intensity.  She is having to re-learn how to calm herself down without a binky and it's been hard for her.    Sunday at church was the worst.  She had gotten ahold of my iphone and was playing with it when she got frustrated at something on it and handed it to me to fix.  Well when I took it she freaked out, thinking I was taking it away from her I guess.  So I grabbed her and she was so loud I had to walk outside in the rain.  I walked across the parking lot to a little pavilion and we sat there for 15 mins while she had her meltdown.  She got down and laid in the rain and everything.  I didn't know what to do so I just let her get it all out.  Then I had to go find Shane so we could get our stuff and go home and she kept crying the entire time for an hour total until I got her blankets and she fell asleep in my arms.  

Since then it's gotten a little better but she definitely has her tantrums still.  In fact as I type this I just got a text from my sister saying Siena is mad that she can't have my sister's laptop.  Aria is just playing away on her horse. 

Overall I'm glad it's done and over with and the worst of it is over for sure.  There are times I just want to give it to them because I know it would make them so happy but I'm being strong.

5 Years

We've been married 5 years.  Isn't that crazy?  I can't believe it's been 5 years and I can't believe everything that has happened in the last 5 years.  Hard times, fun times, stressful times and amazing, great, loving times, I'm still loving our life that we have together.

To celebrate our anniversary, we decided to take a weekend trip to St. George.  Even though we go there a lot it ended up being perfect.  I just wanted to go somewhere a little warmer and somewhere I could relax.  I made sure to book a hotel I knew had a comfortable bed, checked out a good book from the library and I was set.

We didn't do a whole lot.  We slept in each morning, ate breakfast, went shopping, saw 2 movies, took a nap each day, read my book and just relaxed.  It was a nice break to just eat out wherever we wanted without having to also feed 2 toddlers.  I could just focus on eating a hot meal and not getting interupted.

Even though it was the coolest weekend of the month there it was still sunny and warm enough that we went on a hike one afternoon.  It was fun to just get out and enjoy outdoors again.  We took 2 pictures the entire weekend.

5 Years!

 17 Weeks Pregnant!

My sister again excitedly offered to watch the girls for us.  So we took her up on 3 nights this time!  They did great, as I knew they would since they love Jennifer and she always spoils them.  She made them food she knew they would like and they had a blast running around her house, took them to get ice cream and they always love petting her dog Milo.  We of course missed them a lot but we got lots of texts on what they were doing, pictures of some funny moments and even face timed them once.

It ended up being a perfect, relaxing weekend and although we would've liked to have gone somewhere more exotic it ended being just what we needed, a nice get away where we didn't feel rushed to go out and do things and could just relax with each other.

Here are some random pictures we got via text about the girls.  We also got some video that I'm not posting, a funny one of Aria petting Milo and then he stands up, and watching Aria's face realize that he's a lot bigger than her is pretty funny.  Milo is so calm and good with them to let them pet him all the time.

Uh...they did NOT like Jennifer's big bathtub...I think they were just overly tired but seriously love this picture.

 Ice Cream...with Cousin Cameron

 Siena refused to look at Jennifer this morning becaues Jennifer had washed her hair and had a towel on her head.  She wasn't crying, she just wouldn't look at her.

 Being so helpful...loading plastic forks from her drawer into the dishwasher.

 Thanks Jennifer for making our weekend so enjoyable.  I never worried once about them!

Here's to the next 5 years and many more after that!