Every year the boys wear their Irish soccer shirts that dad got them from Ireland. I will be sad when they don't fit anymore!
Megan had a fun morning at preschool with her green party and brought home a plateful of green treats.
No pinching around here! The green is covered.
Tanner enjoyed a nice game of backyard soccer outside in the windy weather!
Gavin loves his bouncing Zebra!
Zach eating his pizza!
The scooter kids
In this video, Tanner is in the orange shirt at the beginning. You can see the twins pretty clearly.
Who knew that spending hardly any money would make the kids so happy? Zach and Megan's school held a special skating night at Classic Skating and everyone got in free and we took our scooters. We had never done this before but they had a blast! We only paid for our little $2 dinner deals(basically pizza and a drink) and a few bucks for games and prizes. Tanner acted like it was the coolest thing ever! Who needs Disneyland when you have Classic Skating! :)
I choose to be grateful. What a multitude of blessings I enjoy. I get caught up in the mundane day to day...the hard tasks...not being able to keep the house clean...etc. When I do this I miss the little moments. I forget my blessings. I am not enjoying the beautiful children I have, and I do have beautiful children! I certainly wouldn't want to wish this time away, only to be sorry when it has passed. What a shame that would be! I still remember our sweet bus driver Diane saying to me, "This is the best time of your life. I would do it all again if I could!" There is a sweet baby at Primary Children's Hospital who is very sick. He is my baby's age. He had pneumococcal meningitis, and has been in the hospital for over a month. Each day I check his little blog for updates. His name is Charlie and I don't know him or his parents, but I think about them all the time. He is adorable. Talk about life reaching out and smacking you in the face. I often wonder why things like this happen. I don't have the answers. I suppose that is why we have the gospel and why faith and hope are so important. Life is hard enough to go through and I am so grateful we have the gospel to fall back on!
"The trick is to enjoy life. Don't wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead."-Marjorie Pay Hinckley
A stroller ride here...riding bikes there...turning off the heat...no jackets...snow melting...is it all a dream? I think we are going to set up our trampoline on Saturday! Oh wait, is there a storm rolling in?
It has been loose for days and it finally happened tonight! Daddy pulled it out. It just seems like he just got those baby teeth! My, how time flies. We have one child getting teeth and one child losing teeth! His permanent tooth is already coming in and should push forward into the nice little space that is now there. I was a little tearful when he said he first had a loose tooth. Once they lose those baby teeth they just don't look like babies anymore. Sigh, ho hum. Life goes on...
Look Ma...no tooth!!! Tooth fairy, here I come!
Tooth update: On Saturday March 22, Tanner lost his other loose bottom tooth, pulled out again by Dad. The permanent tooth is already coming in on that one too and is pushing forward nicely. :) :) :)
The day has come for us to think about the twins going to Kindergarten. Wow! I can hardly believe they will be 5 in June. Crazy time...it just keeps going faster and faster as we get older and older.
They used to look like this! Megan at the right and Zach at the bottom. I have to admit, there have been wonderful yet difficult aspects of having twins, but I am just starting to appreciate the fact that they came TOGETHER. This is something that had been hard for me to see when I was pregnant, and then being overwhelmed with the pressures of having twins and taking care of little children. I now see them become closer to one another as the months go on. I see them appreciate and protect one another and I now TRULY believe they came together because they were supposed to.
It was all part of the plan long before they were born. It doesn't mean we don't see our share of fights on a daily basis in our home, but there are also some great moments too. I am glad to be part of this experience. It is pretty cool, and has provided me with a different outlook on life. After the storms sometimes we can step back and enjoy the rainbows, and that is what I am choosing to do.
Twins
There's two to wash, there's two to dry,
There's two who argue, there's two who cry.
One's in the mud having a ball,
The other holds a crayon, another marked wall.
Some days seem endless, my patience grows thin.
Why was I chosen to be a mother of twins?
The answer comes clear at the end of the day,
As I tuck them in bed and to myself I say,
There's two to kiss, there's two to hug,
And best of all, there's two to love.
Zachey J(yes, our moose) is our most active child. But when he falls...he falls hard! When he gets sick, sometimes it seems like forever and he is miserable. After two going on three straight days of Zach throwing up constantly, coughing, being so very sick and already having a blessing, we decided we couldn't take it anymore and took our pediatrician's advice and headed into the ER, being that it was Sunday. First they tested him for the flu by putting some drops in his nose and sucking it out with a tube. That was fun! Not! He had an IV put in and received some fluids and anti-nausea medication and also had a breathing treatment. After he finally kept some fluids down for a little while and four hours had passed, we were able to go home. He was diagnosed with influenza type A which is highly contagious and seems to be "going around" right now. The good news is, he is actually able to walk around and sit up now! He is so much better. Plus, he is able to take Tamiflu, a medication for influenza type A. The doctor reminded us that people used to die very easily from a flu like this. Ahhhhhhhh, modern times. Ya gotta love it!!! Now onto the fact that we have three other little children! Megan and Tanner have been coughing, Megan has seemed a little warm, and Gavin actually threw up a little this morning. I am knocking on wood as we speak in hopes of not having more bad illnesses!!!
Well, I believe it is official! Although I think I am in denial. Gavin took a step on Sunday, February 3rd and yesterday, February 11th, he took about 4 steps! He is only 9 months old and won't be 10 months until February 26th ! What a crazy boy! He is my earliest walker. Zach walked at 10 months, Megan at 11 months and Tanner at 12 months. It just keeps getting earlier. Gavin was born at 9 lbs. 15 oz.(by far my biggest) and in the hospital he was trying to hold his head up and doing a really good job of it. It was like he was born at 2 months old. He has always been a little ahead of the game, doing things a little early. He has 8 teeth also! Count 'em, 8 teeth! He could really pass for a 12-14 month old. He is just as cute as can be and we love him. I am feeling a little cheated though...I hardly had my little infant for very long!
The kids went out with Brandon to play in the snow...
They decided to build a fort and it turned out cool!
Then they built it up even more and added more snow and made it into a little sledding hill! More pictures of that to follow. It was a bit of an attraction for the neighbor boys for a little while.
Zach was just there for a token picture, because he was outside for about 2 minutes and then announced it was time for hot chocolate! So that's what he got. I think he is just ready for summer! Does anybody remember what grass looks like? I can't remember a winter where the grass was completely covered for such a long time. There have been so many deer coming out of the mountains to find food down here. They have been everywhere at night!
