Happy 4th :)

{impromptu photo shoot before church in our red, white, and blue outfits}

Our 4th of July weekend was kept pretty low key. We had intentions of going to festivities but they did not happen due to the fact that our children decided it would be a great idea to wake up early Saturday morning and not take naps... However, we did enjoy our day today, which is actually the 4th anyways. I don't know, but there is always so uplifting about singing "American" songs in church that I love. I feel so patriotic and proud to live in a country where we have freedom and opportunities. It's so easy to see the negative in day to day life, that we, or at least I, often to stop and enjoy the life that I have. For example, we have great friends who so willingly came over for dinner after a last minute offer at church today. It's great that we are able to spend holidays with people we care about and enjoy one another's company. In all, our weekend was a wonderful, low key, mostly relaxing, family filled holiday. Plus, I'm pretty sure we get tomorrow off work!

Christmas Past

I know that this is a little late, but honestly I think that our Christmas this year was our best Christmas as a family. My morning started out with finishing my beautiful cream cheese braid, which has become a new tradition in our family because it was AMAZING and super easy. I decided to just half the dough roll it out and really braid it instead of how the recipe said to do it, and it turned out really pretty and delicious! While I was waiting for the dough to rise Aiden woke up and decided to join me in the kitchen. Then he noticed that something was different... there were packages under our tree. He slowly walked over picked up a bag and handed it to me. I told him "Yep, thats a present and it's for you. Go ahead and open it." He was just beaming with light and slowly took out the paper, set it down, then pulled out the toy. He loved it. He sat and played with it for at least 10 minutes. While he sat quietly and played I woke up Kevin and told him we should get Cooper up too to open presents. Kevin, being the amazing husband he is, suprised me with probably the greatest present this year. I woke up to two brand new and assembled bookshelves flanking my tv. I have been wanting bookshelves for a really long time to fill up some space on our empty wall and they look quite esquisite. I will post pictures once I find things to fill them with, because they look boring now. Opening presents was an all day adventure at our house for the simple fact that the boys enjoyed opening each gift and playing with it. We didn't have that big wrapping paper mess that usually is affiliated with Christmas morning and it was a nice suprise. I let Kevin be our camera man on Christmas day because he got us a new tripod. I thought he would be better... but he just shot a couple of videos and totally missed my first Christmas dinner that I prepared all by myself! I made a bacon "wrapped" turkey with sage butter and a maple glaze, sweet potatoe cassarole, garlic mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, and fresh cranberry sauce. I atttempted to make gravy and was horrible at it so Linda fixed it and she made homemade rolls. Our dinner was a feast full of goodness and fullness. We were so full we couldn't even eat dessert. We had cherry, apple, pecan, and pumpkin pie! All of which was delicious as well! I was so proud of myself and my yummy and moist turkey. After we ate I realized that my Christmas glory was never photographed! Again I blame Kevin for this. But none the less, it was a wonderful day spent with family and friends and we enjoyed all that it brought us. Here are some pictures of what they got from Grandma and some videos of Christmas day :)

Aiden opening this cool car that plays music.

Cooper and Aiden's sweet dance moves.

The Night Before Christmas

Christmas Eve this year was by far one of the most stressful Christmas Eve's I have ever experienced. It had been raining for 2-3 days straight in Arkansas and all of the roads were FLOODED! Kevin decided to go to work and left the house around 10ish. Later, his whole family (mom & brother) called me stating that he needed to go to work get the truck and rescue them from their house. They only had a Jeep and a little Honda. Needless to say, Kevin was off rescuing people all day until about 5:30. During that I had made dough for my Christmas morning cream cheese braid, baked two pumpkin pies & a cherry pie, cleaned the entire kitchen, all whilst taking care of the kiddos. It was a lot of work and I was tired, but I was more frustrated with the fact that Kevin was gone all day. It was Christmas Eve and I was expecting him to be home all day having fun and making memories. However, our Christmas Eve had a beautiful new tradition added to it!


Our friends the Well's invited us over for some home made clam chowder and a night full of fun and games. It was some of the most delicious chowder I have ever had! The boys even had lots of fun "playing" their piano. It was a wonderful evening full of good times and good food!

When we got home we put the boys in their Christmas jammies and then tucked them in for the night.

Thanksgiving

{Please bear with me while I play catch up}

This year we went up to Missouri for Thanksgiving, because I wanted to stay home for the babies first "real" Christmas. It's so nice that we have family close enough to spend the holidays with and still feel like we are "getting away." It was my first time going up to Missouri without Kevin. (I went up Tuesday, he came up Wednesday) I was a little nervous at first, but Linda decided to drive up with me and the babies so we could help bake pies and stuff the day before Thanksgiving. It wasn't too bad of a drive, and I've been up there and back so many times I didn't have any problems finding my way! The babies do really good on the ride there and back. It is about 4 1/2 hours long and I generally try to leave around their nap time. They sleep half the way and then we break when they wake up. The last half of our trip was a little bit rougher because they wanted to play and obviously they couldn't so it was rather loud and fussy in our car. Linda tried her best to entertain them, but it was pretty much unsuccessful. We arrived at Kim's house around 630 which was good because we left about 2pm. The boys were super excited to get out and play and they love Siera (Kim's foster baby). After unpacking and settling in we had dinner, bathed the boys, and put them to bed. Then we watched a movie in Kim & Andy's theater room, which was pretty amazing.

Thanksgiving day consisted of yummy food, pies, Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, Football , and movies. I only made pies this year and they were well loved. I don't think any of them made it past Saturday. Our Friday consisted of shopping, but not early shopping I am no Black Friday fiend. We picked up some really good stuff for the little ones and for ourselves. All of it is to be wrapped and placed under the tree for Christmas day. I bought some awesome tights at TJMAXX and want to wear them so bad, but must wait and it is killing me! Kevin even got a really good deal on a drill and saw set from Home Depot. After the shopping we went over and visited with Kevin's dad and his wife. Its always so nice visiting with them. Karleen always takes lots of pictures and I have her to thank for these ones, because I am terrible at remembering to take them! We ended our night with a trip to Andy's frozen custard! {no springfield trip is complete with out it} Saturday we headed home and spent Sunday recouperating from the busy weekend. I am so thankful that we got to spend some time with our family!

Halloween

Yes this is SUPER LATE, but I finally found the few pictures that were taken on Halloween. I had intentions of retaking our Halloween pictures the following weekend because it was probably one of the most miserable days of my life. Kevin decided to go to work that day and didn't get home until 4:45 and we had to leave at 6. This is not a good time frame for the four of us to get ready in. On top of him being late, he didn't have his phone which left me worrying instead of getting ready. After rushing to get out of the house we had a wonderful evening with friends. We went to church for Trunk or Treat then went to the Bradford's for food and festivities. We even took the babies on a "hayride" around the neighborhood. They loved it and it was so much fun. I'm excited for next year because they will be big enough to collect candy! {i love candy} Here are a few pictures of that day, forgive me for not looking my best.

 

The boys were Thing 1 (Aiden) & Thing 2 (Cooper). Kevin was Brett Michaels and I was a Powder Puff Player (girl football player).

Little Moments

Last night I decided to bring the boys home while Kevin stayed and worked late. I set up our Halloween decorations in the yard, made dinner, bathed them, and played with them all before Kevin got home at the nice hour of um...9pm? Yeah, it was a late night for him but I am glad he worked. We had so much fun! They helped me in the kitchen, by constanly grabbing on my to my legs and not letting go. We had a splash zone in the bath tub. I ended up being soaked by the end of their bath but it was all worth it. Then we played in their room. I let them just run around and be free sans diapers! I had so much fun with all the time that we spent together just the three of us. I am grateful for the little moments in time when I get to spend time with my boys and be silly and fun. I look forward to the many more memories we will be sharing as they grow up.

My awesome Dollar Store decorations and yes, those are Christmas lights.

An upclose look at one of my different tombstones

They really enjoyed the lights and the decorations as a whole. I am super excited for Christmas time!! :)

A Year Has Past...

Since these cute little boogers were born!

As you can probably tell, I haven't taken very many pictures of them since Kevin cleared off our camera for their  birthday extravaganza! But, I cannot believe my little babies are a year old already. Its so crazy to look back on the past year and see how much they have grown and changed and become their own little people. They both definately have their own personalities and things that they do and I could not love it more. Even today I told Kevin I want another baby, which I say everyday so its nothing new. We had a nice family birthday get together. We took the boys to Larry's our favorite pizza joint to get the most fantastic pizza ever! Plus they are free until their 5th or 6th birthday? So, who doesn't love free food? Anyways, afterwards we gave them their own little cupcake mosters to celebrate their special day. I got them at Harps which is probably my favorite grocery store but we rarely go there since its on the other side of the highway. Aiden enjoyed digging into the frosting and making the biggest mess ever. Cooper, on the other hand, was scared of the way that it felt and that it was cold and was just not having it. Bud tried to force Cooper to touch it and it just made him upset so he cried even harder :( Eventually he came around to it and enjoyed making a mess with is brother. It was so nice to spend the evening with our family outside of work and focus on the babies and how awesome they are. Please enjoy the pictures of their mess making mayhem.

Aiden is the one who has the frosting up on the side of his face and covered in green goo. Cooper is the one who is a little bit cleaner. I tried to group them together but bloggers new editor is weird and I'm not used to it. I had a video of it but don't know how to upload it now. :(

Merry Chistmas

Here is what we got for Christmas this year:

Updates A Plenty!

I have been away from a computer for the past couple weeks so this will be a super long post full of pictures and a video. So I hope you enjoy this family update as a wonderful Christmas gift.
Cooper and

Aiden experienced their first ear infections a couple weeks ago. Cooper's ear infection started a day earlier than Aiden's. I took him to the doctor because he kept coughing, while the cough seemed to be nothing but a simple cough every now and then the doctor discovered he had an ear infection in his left ear. I asked if that if there was a posibility that the other twin (Aiden) had one as well. The doctor said there was a chance but to just keep an eye on him. Well... the next morning Aiden woke up the same way Cooper did the day before. So, they both had ear infections in their left ears. They also got weighed at their appointments and Cooper weighed 12lbs. 12oz and Aiden weighed 12lbs. 14oz. I'm sure by now they are around the 14 pound range. A reason for their incredible weight gain is the fact that our children have become insatiable. They are hungry every couple of hours and down 6 ounces! We have decided that it is time to start giving them cereal. Today they had their first bottle of cereal. I think they liked it. We only gave them 2 ounces but I feel that they will probably be eating 4 by the end of the week.

Oh, they have also bumped up another size in diapers and are now wearing a size 2! Since we were so gratiously given so many diapers when the babies were born we were able to do our own diaper comparison trial for a very little cost. We have decided that are our favorite diapers! Huggies are the second best and Luv's comes in third. When it comes to wipes however, I like Huggies better because the wipe caddie has rubber in it that seperates the wipes. Simply amazing!

Now back to the babies! Our church had a Christmas party and the Primary President asked if we would let our babies be baby Jesus. We said yes of course! That meant that Kevin and I were Mary and Joseph in the Primary Christmas program. When it came down to the performance Cooper was the one who was asleep still so he got to be baby Jesus. Thats just how the cards played out for our little budding actors. I think my favorite part about it was a little girl came up and saw Cooper in the basket and said "HOW REAL! ITS A REAL BABY!" I giggled and so did Kevin. I'm glad we could help put on such a great little Christmas program. After we were all done eating and the Primary program was over we recieved a special early visit from Santa Clause!!! I don't think the boys were too interested in meeting him but Santa was interested in them!

Once we got home from the party we decided to take some pictures with the babies since we have very little of us with them.

Me & Cooper

Daddy & his boys

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. There will be more updates to come soon!!

Christmas Time

Christmas is my favorite time of year! I love the decorations, the colors, the message, and the spirit of the holiday. Last year we didn't get to have a Christmas tree because we had just moved and lets face it... they are expensive! However, I did get to go post-Christmas shopping with Kevin's sister Kim and boy did we get some good deals! I got a new pre-lit Christmas tree for half off! I love our tree. It is 7.5 feet tall and its a "mixed" pine. It has different type of branches. It is beautiful! Prior to the "Christmas Season" I asked Kevin if we could put up our tree before Thanksgiving. He said no and that a month of Christmas decorations would be plenty enough. So I didn't argue and said ok and pouted just a little bit. However, we got to have Thanksgiving at our house this year with Kevin's mom and dad and his sister Kim & her family.

(Kevin carving his 1st TURKEY!)
This meant that I got to decorate early!!! Kevin even suggested that we decorate the weekend before. I was in shock but was so excited. I climbed up into the attic and got down the decorations for outside our house. Just a simple wreath and some large bells & ornaments I got on sale last year. Once the outside was done I took on the tree. It was still in the box they sold it to us in and it was really heavy. I thought I could get it out by myself because Kevin had been working all day and I was very eager to put up our tree. So, me being smart and ingenious I grabbed a hold of the box and hoisted it over the little opening where the stairs go up into the attic. I realized at this point I could not get it down by myself but I was stuck... Willfully I pushed the box into the center of the hole and let go. THUD! The box landed right side up and didn't even crack under the immense pressure. Kevin came running into our garage, I'm sure he thought I had hurt myself, and found our tree just standing there. He helped me open the box and then carried the heavy pieces of the tree into our house. This tree is not like the one I had growing up. Instead of putting all the branches on one by one it came in 3 easy pieces. Kevin continued to help as we spread out the branches and made our tree look fat and plump. Then I got to decorate it. This year our colors are Silver, White, and Purple.
I really like it but I think next year we will do a more traditional color of Red instead of Purple. But wait! It gets even better. Kevin agreed that I am allowed to purchase a new tree this year to place in our guest room so we can have a tree lit up in the window by our front door. I am overjoyed!! However that is not why I love Christmas. I love the message it has about giving to others in times of need. I would much rather give to my husband, babies, family, and friends before giving myself a present. It's also at the end of the year which gives me time to reflect on my life in the past year and how much I have grown and changed as a person. And most importantly, it is about celebrating our Savior's Birth. How amazing is it that this little baby was born and came to this Earth to take away all of our sins.
Christmas is a Season for Believing!

So big now! ^ Look at those rolls on their legs! They kind of sit up on their own...
but they love their tummy mats!!

Halloween

Our 1st HALLOWEEN!!

Cooper did pretty good on this photo shoot. Aiden is the one who is upset on the right. :(

I know this is almost a week late but... I figure it's better late then never!

For Halloween Linda bought the boy's little onsies. Aiden was a pumpkin and Cooper was a ghost. They were so adorable!



Our friend Frankie also bought some little mask's for the kiddos. Aiden was the monster and Cooper was a puppy. They were big so they can grow into them which will be AWESOME!



Halloween night we went over to Bud & Linda's to help hand out candy and show of our cute little pumkin and ghost. I also made a pumpkin pie for Jimmy since it is his one and only favorite desert. We also made rice crispy treats with Coco Pebbles and melted butterscotch on top. They were YUMMY!!! I strongly suggest you try it sometime.

I cannot believe how fast the babies are getting big. I was just looking at pictures of when we first brought them home and just to show everyone a comparison I have posted them below.

The boy's at 10 days... you can see their ribs and they have little heads and hands and feet.

The boy's at 6 1/2 weeks. They have bigger heads and their bellys are big and their legs are chunking up. Its just amazing to me how fast little babies grow up. But I do think they look more like little old men now. And they are loosing their hair... so keep on the look out for some blonde headed babies coming soon!