Cameron & Kyle: 5 months

5 months. SOOO late... but here we are! Hopefully I'll add pictures later...

5 months has been rough. Teething has started with Cameron, Screaming, crying, napping strikes happened, bedtime strikes. you name it. We were exhausted, we cried, I cried, they cried, we all cried.

Cameron:
Started rolling over more from his belly to his back.
Pushes up really well
Smiles and laughs more
Talks and is social
Loves to play with his toys
Thinks his sister is silly
Loves to play in the jumperoo
Loves the door jumper
wears 3-6 month, and size 3 diapers. Still fits into some 0-3 month clothes.


Kyle:
Rolls all over the place
Pushes up well
loves to smile and laugh
is ticklish on his belly, neck and feet
Loves to play with Ellie
Loves to chew on everything and especially sophie the giraffe
Doesn't like to be set down
is a cuddle bug
Loves the door jumper and jumperoo
at 5 months he wore 3-6 month clothes, and size 3 diapers.

Eating:
Cameron and Kyle both eat every 3-4 hours during the day, and if they're not sick, then every 4-ish hours at night, but it's been  bad lately with colds, teething and who knows what else.

They both take good naps at 9, 1, and a cat nap at 5. Bedtime is usually around 7:30-8 depending on how quickly we get everything done, and if it's a bath day!

They're growing up so much, it's insane, and I can't believe they're SO BIG!

We love them so much and can't imagine only having one baby! Twins are definitely the way to go for us, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Cameron & Kyle: 4 months

Late again, but I'm going to catch up anyway!

Another month older! I can't believe it's going by so fast, but at the same time it seems like we've been in the baby stage forever. These two little boys keep me tired, happy and on my toes. Here's some things about them at 4 months that I want to remember:

Cameron's stats at 4 months:

Weight: 13 lb 11 oz - 15th percentile
Height: 24"- 8th percentile
Head size: 40 cm - 8th percentile

He's my tiny guy!! He's getting more and more fun lately!

• He wears size 2 diapers, barely fits into size 3-6 month clothes, and his feet are probably still smaller than a 1.
• He nurses every 3 hours or so during the day, and 1 or 2 times at night.
• He takes 2 sometimes 3 naps a day, and is starting to sleep better at night. Still working on that one!
• He sleeps in the swing, but we're trying to wean him off it slowly.
• Loves bath time
• Getting better at tummy time, and occasionally rolls from front to back.
• It's not so easy to make him smile
• loves to talk and make noises, but is very quiet when talking, which is funny because he's SO LOUD when he cries!
• Loves to jump in either the doorway jumper or the floor jumper
• Loves to stand
• tries to sit when you hold his hands
• loves to eat his hands, and anything he can get his hands on
• he still loves the binky
• He takes a bottle really well, and sometimes pukes less when he's had a bottle.
• Loves to hold soft toys, and minky blankets, especially when he's tired.
• He's starting to play with toys more and more.
• Starting to kick his feet when he gets excited more and more.
• He will giggle when you tickle his neck.
• He likes to play with Ellie and loves to watch her.
• He gets fussy easily, and sometimes he can be hard to calm down. We're still trying to figure him out.
• He sort of acts like he might be getting some teeth, but nothing yet.

Kyle's stats at 4 months:

Weight: 15 lb 11.5 oz - 55th percentile
Height: 24" (I think more like 24 1/2") - 21st percentile
Head size: 42 cm - 61st percentile

Kyle's a big boy, and seems even bigger when he's next to Cameron!

• He wears size 3 diapers, 3-6 month clothes, but his feet are probably size 1.
• He nurses every 3 hours during the day and 1 or no times at night.
• He takes 2 or 3 naps a day, and has been sleeping through the night more lately. Even in the crib!
• He's a lot more aware of toys, people and things lately..
• He does NOT like it when you set him down and leave the room! He gets a big fat pouty lip and cries a ton.
• He loves to kick when he's excited and when he's playing
• he also loves to jump in the doorway jumper or the floor jumper
• He still hates binkies most of the time, but sometimes when he's really tired, he'll take one to fall asleep
• He giggles when you tickle his neck and belly
• He LOVES to talk and eat his hands. Mostly at the same time.
• He loves to watch people. Especially Ellie. And Ellie is always happy to play with him.
• He goes to bed pretty easily, and is really the easiest baby on the planet. Only cries when he's hungry, needs a diaper change, or tired. It's awesome.
• He smiles at ANYTHING and EVERYONE. Seriously, this kid is a little grinner. It's adorable!
• HE LOVES taking baths, and loves kicking and splashing his feet in the tub.
• He favors his right side, so we have to kind of force him to look left sometimes.
• He can roll from tummy to back, but still hates tummy time

I'm sure I'm probably missing some other details about the boys, but this is what I can think of right now.

These little guys bring us so much joy! And YES my hands are full, but so is my heart!

Eating Real

I've been wanting to get our family to eat more healthy foods for a while, but I wasn't really truly invested in it until now, when I'm finding I have more time to do things.

I've learned more and more about processed foods, what they can do to you, and how bad they really are. We have decided that to cut out all processed foods from our diet. This isn't an easy thing to do, but it's doable with some extra work.

Making the change to eating real foods is starting small with our family, since I am not able to invest 100% yet.

For at least the last 6 weeks, I haven't bought ANY cereal. We stay more full after breakfast because unlike cereal, the food we've had for breakfast fills us up! I have to admit, it's hard to make breakfast every morning, but it's so much better! We eat oatmeal with cinnamon & bananas, scrambled eggs or whole wheat pancakes or waffles most mornings. I love that Ellie is taking to eating good food in the morning much better. She stays more full and is less cranky if we eat a good fulfilling breakfast.

Another change I've made is to use Whole Wheat flour MOST of the time. It's delicious, and Ellie actually eats the waffles and pancakes BETTER than when I would make them with white flour. Weird!

So far, I've made our own granola, bread, muffins and waffles & pancakes. I will start making bread on a regular basis soon, I hope! I'm hoping to make hummus regularly, too! I know in the long run we'll be healthier, happier and feeling a heck of a lot better without food that makes you feel sluggish and gross!

I'm getting most of my recipes from 100daysoffood.com and they are awesome! 

I am excited about this change, and also excited that soon it will be prime season for amazing fruits and veggies at the farmer's market! I'll have to share some pics and recipes soon.

Cameron & Kyle: 3 months old

January's over (thank goodness) and that means Cameron and Kyle are one month older!

Cameron:

• LOVES it when mommy sings the itsy bitsy spider to him and does the hand motions
• still pukes buckets, but is happier about it than he used to be
• he's wearing size 1 diapers, size 0-3 month clothes and is still a little squirt
• he's no longer taking Prevacid, OR Zantac! Woohoo! He's not too bad without them, either!
• He's starting to "talk" and coo so much and he LOVES it when we talk to him or make faces at him
• He takes about 3 naps a day, and wakes up once at night to eat.
• On a good night he sleeps from about 9-2 or 3, then again until 6 or 7.
• He nurses about every 3 hours during the day, and once at night. He's a guzzler, and I have to stop him every 5 or so minutes so he can burp, otherwise everything he just ate comes right back up!
• Tummy time is not his favorite, but we try to have him do it anyway.
• He LOVES sitting in the bumbo!
• He also loves playing in the bouncy seat and watching the bubbles and lights move.
• He generally loves to suck on a binky and takes the gumdrop or nuk kind
• He likes being held, but only in certain ways, and he's not super cuddly
• Being outside is probably his favorite thing ever.

Kyle:

• is such a little smiler! He will smile and coo at you all. day. long! We love it!
• He hates tummy time. Like REALLY hates it. Working on that...
• He's a little chunker, and he's growing out of some 0-3 month clothes, but still fits in a lot. He wears size 2 diapers.
• He likes to nurse more often than Cameron during the day, and sometimes eats every 2 hours, however he sleeps MUCH longer at night, like usually from 9-4 or 5, then again until 7 or 8.
• He also takes 3 naps a day.
• He talks a lot and loves to look at everything and anything
• He follows us when we walk across the room and gets SUPER sad if we walk by him and don't pick him up.
• He's a little softie and gets his feelings hurt easily
• He has super sensitive skin, and we've found we can only use a really expensive organic baby wash on him.
• he HATES binkies, but sometimes when he just won't go to sleep I can force one on him and it gives him that extra push to get to his sleepy place

Updates:

• Now that it's two weeks later, C man is sleeping longer at night!!
• Kyle takes a latex Nuk binky selectively
• Kyle can roll from front to back
• Tummy time is better for both boys
• Cameron does better with pumped milk since it doesn't drown him
• They both love the jumper
• Cameron loves to be outside
• Kyle doesn't fit in 0-3 much at all anymore

I'll update more with pictures soon!!

And probably more things I remember!

Ellie's Room 90% finished

I finally took some good pictures of Ellie's room! I love how it turned out, and I just need a headboard, dust ruffle and a bean bag chair for the corner, then we'll be set! Possibly thinking of making a cute bunting to go on the wall somewhere, but not 100% sure, yet!

 I picked up the white frame at Hobby Lobby on our girl's day, and I LOVE it. Also, I LOOOVE that picture of Ellie. She was (and still is) such a little cutie!

 The dresser that I refinished last summer. Not perfect, and I learned a LOT if I ever decide to do one again.

I had these wall stickers for her nursery when we lived in Utah, but they were so trashed after being on 3 different bedroom walls! I found them at Hobby Lobby! Woohoo! I love that I found them again because I love the little touch the add to her room.

I'm considering dying the blackout curtains a dark brown, but I'm not sure how the fabric will take it so that project is on hold for now.

Her quilt is so cute, and while it is FAR from perfect, I am glad I took the project head on and decided I could try it. It took way longer than a quilt should take, ha ha, but it's done and that's all that matters!

I think Ellie's room is probably the most decorated/cutest room in the house. Someday I'll get to furnishing and decorating the rest of our house...

Going Private

My blog has been getting weird traffic lately from weird countries that I don't know anybody from, or know of anyone visiting, so I have decided to make it private to keep my kiddos and our family safe from weirdos! So, if you'd like an invite to the blog, please leave a comment with your email and I will add you to the list!

I'll be making it private on 2/16/13 (Next Saturday) so please get me your emails before then!

Thanks!

Ellie's 2nd birthday: part 2

On the day before Ellie's birthday, we took her out to breakfast to Cracker Barrel. She had a ton of fun & loved looking at everything in the store!

The morning of her birthday, I made pancakes, and I made a Mickey Mouse shaped pancake for her. She LOVED it!

 

We had some fun and played with her during the day, but it was a pretty typical day.

We had Mexican casserole for dinner, which is her favorite meal, and she ate a TON of it, like always.

I made her a boiled black cake, and we FaceTimed with Grandma & Grandpa Timothy so they could help sing Happy Birthday to her.


 

She loved the attention and only wanted the ice cream (just like last year!!) until her hands got way too cold for it!



We had a great low key day and had a lot of fun with our sweet little girl! Happy Birthday, Ellie! We sure love you!

Breastfeeding twins

I wanted to take some time and write my feelings and thoughts for myself so I can remember this time in my life. These are my experiences, and I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad or be preachy. This is about me and my thoughts and opinions.

Breastfeeding Ellie was easy. It really was. Sure it was painful at first, and sometimes I felt like I didn't know what I was doing. Yes, I got mastitis 3 times, because of oversupply issues, but once that passed, it was a breeze. I rarely dealt with supply issues, and she was easy to nurse anywhere. I had a happy nursing relationship with her and we nursed until 13 months. It was a little of me and her deciding to be done when we stopped.

Because of my success with Ellie and the positive experience it was, I knew I really wanted to breastfeed my twins. I prayed almost every day of my pregnancy that I would be able to do it. I wanted to do it for many reasons, just like I wanted to with Ellie, almost even more-so than with Ellie. I knew that it was what they needed most, if they came early, which they did, and I really wanted to have the bond with them that I had with Ellie. Reading about nursing twins was terrifying and intimidating. Everything I read talked about how long it would take, how you need to feed them at the same time, how much you're stuck on the couch, pumping to build supply, supplementing, keeping your supply up, and how the first 6 weeks is (pardon my french) pure hell.

Despite all this scary stuff, I made the decision that I would still try, because I really wanted to give them the benefits of breast milk. I told myself I could make it to the first 6 weeks, and if I made it that long, I'd make it to 2 months, and if I made it that long, 12 weeks, and so on.

The day they were born, I was nervous. I was afraid they wouldn't know how to eat because they were coming early. Thankfully there was an amazing lactation consultant at the hospital that helped me out. I needed it. I needed to know it was possible and that I had support. Those first 4 days in the hospital were hard. We went through some problems at first, having to supplement extra pumped milk, because they were getting too tired from breastfeeding, but it worked out.

The first 6 weeks of their lives really are kind of a blur as far as how I even survived. It was hard. It was just as they all said it would be. I was tired beyond exhausted. I never knew exhaustion like this. Like ever. Wow. Thinking about it makes me feel ill, because I felt sick a lot from the exhaustion. But things got better. They were gaining weight at an awesome rate, feeding every 2-3 hours and I was so thankful that I was having the opportunity to do exactly what I wanted to do. Since the birth experience didn't go as I wanted it to, it meant a lot that I was breastfeeding them.

When I think about how amazing it is that I have been able to breastfeed my boys, I am humbled, and in awe of the human body. I mean, it's so amazing that my body can make enough food for two growing babies. I love breastfeeding. I love the bond I have with my boys, and the good happy hormones it releases to make me happy. I love that I can give them the very best thing for them and help them grow!

I hope that I can continue to breastfeed my sweet boys, but I am also realistic in my thinking, knowing that at any moment, things can get too stressful, and I will need to quit so I am not feeling overloaded and crazy. But for now, I'm going to keep my hopes up and try to make it another month, then another, then another then hopefully well past 12 months. 

I'm thankful every day that things are going so well, that it's feeling like second nature to feed the boys and that I'm not having any issues. I have a great support group of other twin moms and good friends who are supportive and helpful when it comes to breastfeeding. So if someone happens upon this and is wondering if it's possible to breastfeed twins, know that it totally is if you are willing to find what works for you and make it work for you and your family. It is so rewarding to have two sweet babies look up at you and smile when you're feeding them! It hasn't been easy, but it's so worth it! Here's to more happy breastfeeding months ahead!

Girl's day out

This mama needed a break from having babies attached to me at every moment of the day, so on David's day off last Friday (2/1/13) Ellie and I had a girl's day out!

David was sweet enough to make me some scrambled eggs & toast for breakfast and bring it to me in bed. :) What a happy start to a fun day!

First up, we went to OP Nails and Ellie got her fingers and toes painted, while I got a lovely pedicure. It had been about 11 months since I last had one, so it was LONG overdue!

Ellie didn't like holding still, and the poor guy kept saying, "Hold still, Ellie. No, Ellie, like this" ha ha!

Pink fingernails!

Ah, cute toes and feeling rejuvenated!

After that, we headed to Kingsport and ate at Panera. Ellie loved her Mac & Cheese, and we each got a Valentine's cookie to enjoy after lunch. MMM. Panera is one of my favorite places to eat! I especially LOVE their Broccoli Cheddar soup!

After we ate lunch, we headed to Hobby Lobby, where I was hoping to find some cute glass bins for the laundry room, but they didn't have quite what I was looking for, so we bought an adorable white frame, and some wall stickers for Ellie's room.

We headed home after shopping because we were both tired, and the babies were getting hungry and I didn't have another bottle for them. Ellie fell asleep on the way home, like I hoped, and we had a good rest of the day.

It was a much needed break, and I am so thankful that my sweet husband stayed home with our boys so I could get out and have some freedom!

I should have taken a picture of us while we were doing other things, but I only got pictures of our feet and Ellie during our pedicures.

I'm looking forward to the next girl's day I have with my little sweetheart! She loves the attention, and needs the one-on-one time, since she doesn't get it at home as much since the babies are so needy.

Ellie's 2nd birthday: part 1

We celebrated Ellie's birthday while we were at the guest house in Oneida, and we had a lot of fun with everybody.

Ellie is really into Minnie Mouse, so we let her wear her Halloween costume, which is a Minnie Mouse dress, and she loved it. We let her open presents & she got so many fun things from her cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents & mommy & daddy. 

We sang to her and had cake and ice cream, and she had a GREAT time!!

Here are some pictures of her birthday party in Oneida:

Grandpa Grigsby, Grandma Grigsby & Ellie

 Having so much fun opening presents!

Precious moments 2 year figurine

Brave coloring book

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

 Lego Duplo set

 Maggie and Ellie playing

I had planned to do a cute cake & maybe cupcakes, but we left Oneida early for a few reasons, so Ellie's aunt was nice enough to pick up a cake and balloons from Wal-Mart and we celebrated anyway!

It was a great day, and Ellie loved being the center of attention, maybe even a little too much! I'll have to come back and add the video later, when I get it uploaded. She was hilarious to watch!

Fitting in

Warning: this post is a poor pity me post and serves no real purpose other than to get my feelings out.

I have been having a hard time here lately. I feel very disconnected to anybody here, for obvious reasons...

Moving here was really hard for me, even though it has been a super great blessing. We moved here at a difficult time: I was about 8 weeks pregnant with NO idea it was twins, super SUPER sick, and not really excited to start out in a new place yet.

Almost a month after being here, we found out we were expecting twins. Then that is really when things started to get harder. My sickness stopped, but when I started hurting, it was hard to be motivated to do anything at all. We only had one car until July and so Ellie and I were stuck at home every day. It was hard!!

Then as the pregnancy continued, more pain followed, more exhaustion crept up on me, and I was so tired all the time, so I didn't want to go anywhere with Ellie!

I would go here and there, but taking her to the park was a nogo for a few reasons: 1) it was seriously so hot and humid 2) she ran away from me all the time so I couldn't risk taking her somewhere I couldn't have control 3) I was hurting and all I wanted to do way lay down so I wasn't in as much pain.

Basically, as I grew bigger and bigger I got less and less mobile and simple things were getting so hard! Then at 31 weeks, a huge wrench was thrown in the mix and I was hospitalized and put on bed rest.

That was the hardest month of my life. I couldn't do anything, go anywhere and I just wanted to be done! Going into labor at a point when they would no longer stop it was the best blessing I could have received because I was just done being pregnant with twins!!

I promise all this is relevant and I am trying to make a point...

So then we had the twins during cold and flu season and we have mostly kept them home, which means I'm back to being stuck at home all the time. Sick season is almost over, so we will start to get out more, but I have kept my boys home in order to protect them, not to mention the logistical reasons...getting out with one newborn was a challenge. Getting out with two is downright crazy!

So with all that background info, I'm going to finally get to the point of this post.

I came here at a hard time. An emotional time, and I left behind best friends that shouldn't and never will be replaced. Because of the circumstances of life, I didn't have the opportunity to make really great friends right away. I feel like I have a lot of pretty good friends, but not many I could just call upon to hang out. I haven't let myself really open up to anyone enough to build a good friendship, aside from a couple of people here and here that I feel I can really count on.

So, being here is hard! I miss my friends, my family and it is hard to be somewhere when you feel like you still haven't connected with anyone. And being in a ward full of older people doesn't help. I honestly feel like the person I know the best and can count on the most is someone much older than me, who is in a completely different stage of life, with children nearly as old as I am, and I am pretty certain I am not considered one of her closest friends, or even someone she would call to invite to hang out with...

Hopefully as the twins get older, I can get out a lot more and get to know more people at a deeper level, and start to feel like maybe I fit in here a bit better. But for now, I feel alone and bummed out a lot of the time. I hope I can make a great group of friends soon, and fill that void so I feel like I can fit in more.

Like I said, I feel like I have a lot of acquaintance friends; people I don't know on a deeper level, people that I couldn't just call up and say, "Hey, let's hang out." And this is so hard for me. I'm not trying to offend anyone here by saying that they haven't opened up to me, or anything, just that circumstances have not allowed me to get to know people enough to make really good connections and friends.

I really hope this can change and that I can open myself up to making friends and finding a group of friends that I can do things with, because not having friends in a new place is hard... And it is wearing me down.

Here's to hoping 2013 brings me lots of opportunities to make friends and have fun! I need it, and so does the welfare of my family :) because being unhappy because I feel alone is not good for my mood, and when I'm unhappy, everyone else is, too.

Ellie: 2 years old

Two years ago (and a little bit...) I did the hardest thing I had done yet, and welcomed Ellie RaNay Grigsby into this world on her due date!

It was a perfect day, and EVERYTHING went exactly how I wanted it to go. Life was perfect, and we had our beautiful little girl!

Two years later, every day is a new adventure full of tantrums, whining, the occasional laughing fit, DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA, and a hug and a kiss whenever possible.

Notable things about Ellie at age 2:

• Everything is "Ellie's" and she points to herself when looking at something and calls it her own
• She has quite the vocabulary and is starting to put more words together
• She LOOOOOVES her baby dolls
• My Russian Nesting dolls are her favorite toy ever
• She loves to be girly and have her nails painted, hair done, and wear dresses and bracelets!
• She LOVES her cousin Isaac and talks about him ALL the time
• She loves to play with Grandpa Grigsby and asks for him
• She loves to FaceTime with Grandma & Grandpa Timothy
• Dancing is her favorite way to get around
• She is clearly addicted to television and Netflix. Working on changing that...
• She is VERY active and has tons of energy. She loves to go outside and just RUN RUN RUN!
• She likes to sing songs and will sing along with any song playing, and she'll get the hymn book and sing songs from it
• If either one of us is on the phone, she will grab her play phone and talk on it while we're talking
• She is getting better at saying prayers and repeating things, though sometimes she just sits there and says "amen" until you get to the end
• She is wearing size 24 month clothes, size 6 shoes, some 2t size clothes, size 4 diapers and only has a mild interest in potty training.
• She still takes a 1-2 hour nap, and I am SOOOO thankful for this!
• She sleeps in a twin size big girl bed and LOVES it. We think she's fallen out a few times, but she always gets right back in and goes to sleep, ha ha!
• Her favorite foods are: scrambled eggs, apples, blueberries, Greek yogurt, green beans, goldfish crackers, milk and smoothies. She is getting better at eating meals and will eat a lot more meat than she used to.
• She is SUPER obsessed with putting her shoes on.
• She loves her little brothers, and is always trying to help, even when her help isn't wanted...
• She loves taking baths, and anything else to do with water
• Her favorite toy is her Minnie Mouse car
• She is a pretty good listener, and talks ALL the time
• She's good at carrying a tune!
• She loves to help me whenever she can, and I love to let her learn how to do simple chores around the house
• She's very much so a mommy's girl, but she gets SO excited when daddy comes home from work, she runs and gives him a hug.
• She's always asking, "Hold it" when she wants me to hold her, or if she wants to hold one of the babies.
• She likes to lay down next to the babies, and thinks it's the neatest thing ever
• She says, "Down you" when she wants you to lay down next to her
• She's extremely possessive of her things. The babies CANNOT play with her old baby toys, or use her blankets AT ALL.
• She can almost get herself dressed, and she can put certain pairs of shoes on her feet and 85% of the time gets the right feet.
• She loves to go "buy-bye" with me and usually behaves extremely well when we're out and about
• She can count to 10, with just a tiny bit of help
• She knows a LOT of her letters
• She knows lots of colors and I think her favorite is either pink or green. Not sure yet...
• She has a GREAT imagination and uses it all the time when she's playing by herself
• She is getting MUCH better at playing by herself
• She loves to go to church, and specifically, Nursery

That's Ellie at 2 in a nutshell. I know there are probably more things, but I cannot think of what they are right now. She's a little firecracker that keeps us on our toes, but she is so much fun. Even though she makes the days really hard, I am so thankful that I have her in my life. She brings our family so much joy and happiness!

Cameron & Kyle: 2 months old

One more month has come and gone, and little Cameron and Kyle are growing up so fast!

 My handsome little guys!!

 Cameron and his Tiger                                       Kyle and his Elephant

 

My handsome little Cameron!

 

 I didn't rotate this one, sorry Kyle! But look at those BLUE eyes. Aren't they dreamy? :)

This picture sums up how picture taking went today...

Things about Cameron at 2 months old:

• At his 2 month check-up, he weighed 10 lbs 3 oz, 6th percentile and was 21 inches long! He's only on the charts for his weight and head size, which is 38.5 cm, 27th percentile.
• He wears size 1 diapers, and size 0-3 month clothes.
• He loves to hold blankets, burp cloths, my shirt, hair, really anything soft in his hand when he's falling asleep.
• He loves his binky.
• He loves his soft minky blanket, especially when he's tired. He likes it touching his face.
• Sitting in the car seat isn't so bad anymore!
• He nurses every 2-3 1/2 hours during the day, and will usually have one 5 hour stretch at night, if I'm lucky, he'll have two 5 hour stretches.
• He is very alert and aware of his surroundings. He loves to just look around and take in the world.
• He is a little cuddle bug and LOVES to fall asleep on our chests.
• He loves having a bath.
• He's starting to smile a bit more here and there, but he hasn't quite gotten it yet.
• He loves to fall asleep in bed with me.
• He has to have Zantac twice a day still, for reflux, but it usually helps him with the pain. Only sometimes with the puke...
• He takes 3 naps, but we're still trying to figure his nap schedule out!
• He loves to sleep in the swing and bouncy seat.

Things about Kyle at 2 months old:

• He weighed 11 lbs 7 oz , 26th percentile and was 22.5 inches long, 23rd percentile. His head is 39 cm and that's in the 41st percentile.
• He wears size 1 diapers, and size 0-3 month clothes.
• He loves to snuggle more than Cameron does, and will fall asleep easily when being held or laying down with you.
• He's not so much a fan of the binky, but will take the Avent silicone one and sometimes a Nuk brand when he's super sleepy.
• He loves to sit in the bouncy seat and swing, and often falls asleep in either one.
• He is a super stuffy little guy, and often has to have his nose suctioned out after we pump it full of saline. Hopefully as he grows this trend doesn't continue!
• He is a super smiley guy, and smiles at just about anything!
• He makes the most adorable frowny face, and I may or may not make him make it a lot because of how cute it is. lol!
• He takes 3 naps and sleeps for 1 4-5 hour stretch at night, and 1 3 hour stretch.
• He nurses every 2-3 hours.
• He loves bath time.

They can recognize us from pretty far away, and love to follow us across the room. They like their sister for the most part, except for when she makes them cry by putting her face on their faces, rubbing their heads or just getting too close to them.

They are getting SO much easier to deal with and we rarely are feeling like pulling our hair out these days, so that's an improvement!

They're the best thing that has happened to us, and I love to have them in my life. Even through the hard times, I wouldn't trade them for the world. Some of my best moments are when I'm snuggling them while nursing them and realizing how incredibly blessed I am to have them here with me.

New Year: New Me!

2013.

Wow. It's already 2013? STRANGE, but good!

This year, I want to make a conscious effort to be a better person. I want to change bad habits into good routines, be a better example for my kids, find time to do the things I love, and finally be a better wife, mother, friend, daughter, sister, etc. 

Here are my overall New Year's Resolutions:

1. I want to change my bad eating habits into healthy ones: eating my daily recommendation of fruits and veggies is going to be a priority this year!
2. I want to exercise 30-60 minutes 6x a week. Whether it be running, walking, dancing with Ellie, playing at the park or anything else. I just need to MOVE my body!
3. In addition to random exercise, this year I really want to run a 5k. That means I need to train for it, and I'm excited to do it!
4. I'm going to lose the baby weight. Pregnancy with twins did a number to my body, and while I realize it will never be like it used to be, I can sure try my darndest to get it back in shape!
5. I want to spend more time with my kids. Yes, I'm with them every day, but I want to do the little things that matter with them. Play with them, read and sing with them. Be there for them and not just wish for the days to end, but to enjoy them with my kids.
6. I want to work harder to study the gospel and to make it a priority to STUDY, not just READ the scriptures.
7. I'm going to love my body and myself for what and who they are no matter what!
8. I'm going to learn and try to perfect this piece on the piano. I think it's a beautiful piece, and I have lost a lot of my piano talent, as I haven't had the time or a piano to play on. I don't want to lose my talent completely, so I need to work on something to keep it going!
9. I'm going to try to keep my home cleaner. With 3 kids 2 and under this will be an interesting challenge.
10. I want to spend less on silly things, and save for things that matter.

All of these resolutions will make me work hard, and I really REALLY hope that I follow through! I have a better desire to be healthy and a better person this year for some reason. Not sure why, but I do and I'm looking forward to this year!

Happy New Year, Everybody!