Life is Beautiful

Remodeling ennui

2012-02-08T13:45:00.004-07:00

(You have to have seen Gilmore girls to get how ennui, sounds like on-wee, is used. It's French for boredom with what one is doing!)

Man, lately I have been so snappy at my kids, frustrated with Kendall that he can't finish our tiling/bead board/base board project faster, and I don't seem to want to do any of the things I normally love to do. I hate living in the mess of construction so it makes me hate to clean because the second I get the house clean, Kendall starts working again. I wish I ~~would~~ could do all of my our projects, it's not that I'm unwilling...I've just learned that parts of remodeling are better off for Kendall to do. I get too impatient to sand properly, and Kendall makes fun of my caulking and mudding, and measuring...hence the reason he has to complete these tasks. But, the man has hardly any free time and I refuse to be a naggy wife, so they usually end up taking longer than I'd like. Anyways, I'm having the remodeling blues because I want my house put back together, and I want it done now! Then I was reading one of my favorite blogs and she said, "I kind of think circumstances don’t change true joy, because the deep real kind of joy is above circumstances." This is sooo true, and I have been letting myself get so bugged over this and obviously it's not affecting my true happiness, but it was definitely affecting the immediate happiness of my family because I have been a grouch!

This is where we are at today. Kendall got the back tiles laid, and the front floated. So tonight he is going to try and get the front laid down, then tomorrow he can grout!

On a side note, my post cards came last week and I did get the frames painted and hung. What do you think?

This bench was from my mom. It was a worn green color and desperately needed a new seat cover, so I painted it the same red as my table and will be making a new seat for it tonight.

You know your not being a fun mom when your almost 3 year old daughter says "Mommy, are you sorry?"
Me, hastily: "For what?"
Her: "For being so grouchy?"
Oh crap!
Me: "Yes, I promise to be nice from now on!"

Dang, that sucks!

Wa wa wa!!! I better go clean my house!

Spring is in the air

2012-02-06T09:27:00.001-07:00

So, as mentioned in this post, I was tired of wintry decorations, so I lugged up my spring/everyday decor and got it all put back out...along with some new additions.From left to right, the blue bird is from Tai Pan, the flowers are from Tai Pan a couple of years ago. It is super easy to create any flower arrangement just by picking a couple of colors you want, and 3 different heights. The flower vase is from the DI. The little owl is from Hobby Lobby. The greenery is from Ikea. The yellow birdhouse is from my 12th birthday from my sister Jeanette, and the black stand is a yard sale find from my sister Laura. The heart owls are from my sister Wendy.

The mirror is a yard sale find from Laura that I have painted several times. I think this is my favorite so far. I just painted it this vibrant green and then sprayed some antiquing on it.. The little bird on the nest is from Roberts, the glass stand is from the DI. I found the orange bird this year at Tai Pan for $2.00 because a piece of the glaze had come off, so I just touched it up. The brass candle stand is from the DI. The birdcage and bird are from Roberts. The owl is new from Hobby Lobby this year...watch for their metal things to go on sale about every other week. The vintage turquoise and red books are from my mom. The vintage stitchery is one my mom did in the 70's...awesome!!! I totally love that she made that. And finally, the bird house on the end is from Roberts and the stand is again from Laura discards.

This is how my turquoise dresser looks in my front room now. For those who've not been to my house in a while, or ever, I moved my piano onto the tile in the entryway to open up my living room some more. The turquoise dresser was a yard sale score that I got for $5.00!!! It did have a black widow in it though...yikes! I just spray painted it, antiqued it, then sealed it.

This is a little sneak peek at a project I'm making right now. Pictures to come!

As I was taking pictures, Jack Jack was up in his favorite spot! He knows he's not supposed to be up there because he usually like to get into the ash of the fireplace...hence the silly grin! He is such a little tease!

A whole year older and wiser too!

2012-02-05T01:45:00.001-07:00

Jack and Joshua turned 1 yesterday...it is so weird how fast this monumental day came. I have been thinking about what I would want to tell them and have them know about our first year together and this is what I came up with.....

You're my third and fourth babies and you've just turned 1. That's big. That means that you've navigated our mine field of craziness for 366 days and everyone is still alive. We've had our fair share of ups and downs this years, but we've all adapted to each other and are a stronger family because of the contributions we all make. You are both happy and healthy boys. You are not deaf from our noise and you definitely like adding your own sounds to the mix. You have not been left behind anywhere or permanently damaged by our learning curve. NOT ONLY ARE YOU ALIVE - you're both thriving...which is saying something! You're walking around everything, and you both get more and more daring every day...which I am not quite ready for full mobility. Josh, you seem to be a little more curious and investigative when it comes to discovering your surroundings, so you have been a little quicker to crawl and start walking around things! You both love laughing at everyone and anything that tickles your sense of humors...but you definitely seem to have your own inside jokes already! You're both so loving. Josh, you are my little snuggle-bug! It doesn't matter what you are doing; you are always ready to tuck your head in and give me some love. Jack you tend to be a little bit more wiggly...unless you're tired...but you have a way of wrapping people around your little finger! You are such a tease, and it is literally intoxicating!!! YOU'RE BOTH SO INCREDIBLE, and truth be told - this has been my favorite kid-experience (don't tell your brother and sister). I don't love you more or less than the other two... but I'm softened by their awesomeness and every bit of my softening allows me to guide the two of you better. You are both so unique and special and add such an important piece of the puzzle into our family! You are both so charming and adorable...Josh, you charm everyone you see and pull them in to bask in your adorable-ness, and you are always so ready to give away your smiles. You are a very social baby and you seriously draw people in everywhere we go! Jack, you are a little more timid when it comes to strangers, but when you're ready, you definitely know how to lay on the love with those big eyes; which could melt even the hardest of hearts. We definitely try to laugh a lot and love even more and I sure hope that you have felt that in your first year with us!!! I love you both so much and I seriously can't imagine my life without the two of you little stinkers!

These boys are so funny in the tub lately. They are little wiggle worms in everything they do, so I don't get a ton of pictures of them together...or separately for that matter...because I am so busy making sure they won't harm themselves or get maimed by their siblings, but today I was able to snap a few shots of them in the tubby.

Jack was kind of sad this day because he had been puking for a couple of days!!!

Sneaky little smile on Joshy's face!

This boys blue eyes are seriously amazing!

Tired of the same old

2012-01-25T14:03:00.002-07:00

Today I am sick so I decided to just post some pictures from around my house. I really like to rearrange my artwork and decorations around my house so that when I'm feeling restless and bored I don't have to go spend a ton of money, and it really makes a big difference. So the owl picture has been above my fireplace and by my front door. Right now it is happily nestled in a group on my bedroom wall. I painted/stitched all of these, but they are not original works...I saw them online and painted them for myself.

This is my boring mantle...after Christmas I take down everything that is just holiday stuff and only leave up winter things. I am getting really tired of this arrangement so I think I am going to put up my spring stuff and leave out the really springy things.

These are two of my favorite things I bought this year. My sister Laura made them, and they make me happy ever time I look at them.

I love the heart on this guy.

This is my holiday wreath I made for my front door. I am deciding if I want to take it down too and make a new, more neutral one for right now. The spring wreath I have is definitely too colorful and bright for right now. My friend really wanted me to do a tutorial on how I make my wreaths, and although I'm sure there are a ton out there, I think I will make one for this next wreath.

Are you guys getting tired of your decorations or is it just me???

Maggie, Maggie, quite CONTRARY...

2012-01-24T16:16:00.002-07:00

...how does your garden grow?

This girl may not have the same name as miss Mary, but she can certainly be contrary!!! She is pretty much as sweet, lovable and helpful as one can possibly be...or as grouchy, contrary, and a tease! I know that part of our frustrations this week are based on me not getting enough sleep...two puking and diarrhea-ing babies is no fun...but man, have we been butting heads. I think maybe we better take tomorrow and do something fun that just of the two of us can do. Any suggestions?

This girl has so many expressions; these are just a few:

A few things I'm diggin'

2012-01-23T10:24:00.002-07:00

I recently discovered...been forced to check out...pinterest. and I must say I am definitely a big fan!!! Here are a few of the things I found recently that I am either going to make or buy:

Laura and I just purchased this set of four postcards...I love them. I absolutely love succulents, and I have the perfect place to hang these all cute and framed in my front room...can't wait for them to come!

Isn't this a great idea? If you are anything like me, you love finding cute cupcake wrappers. What better way to display them than having them out to see and enjoy???

I am making Maggie some dress ups for he birthday in March, and I was looking around for pretty dresses and came across these. How fun to have animal dress ups too...that way her brothers can play a little easier. I will definitely be making a set of these!

This is just a dresser with the drawers and hardware taken out. How cute is this???

My kids are very into painting and art work, so I will be making several of these. All it is is just plastic toys glued on the lid, then spray painted! Wouldn't it be cute with birdies and gnomes too???

Love, love, love these house pillows! I think I am making these this week!

Also, making this bird on a wire pillow this week!

These prints make me laugh every time. Love it! I think they would be so cute in an office/craft room.

Super cute book shelf. I wonder how to make it...the cost was $850.00

I like this robin. It's felted on the pillow. So springy!

What kids of things are you guys wanting to make??? Springy, wintery, or Valentines???

Pledge for 2012

2012-01-19T14:53:00.003-07:00

Wow, I can't believe how few pictures I took in 2011! I think I felt like I was too busy living to take pictures. Looking back it was a really challenging and full of changes year...some of those fantastic and some tragic. My dad passed away in January which was beyond words.

During this I was 8 and 9 months preggo...hard work! We had Jack and Josh in February. Jack swallowed amniotic fluid and then had serious complications which resulted in 11 days of hospital stay and the stress of not having him with us or being able to bring him home with Josh.

We brought Jack home and started adjusting to our exciting new life with 4 kids 4 and under. Then at 6 weeks old Jack and Josh were up at Primaries with RSV for 6 days. Again we had to adjust to life after the hospital. After that we had a pretty good stretch of time where life was "normal." From November of 2010 Maggie started having a lazy eye and in May she had eye muscle surgery where she was put under and had her eyes straightened. She did so well and was sooo brave! She seriously didn't even cry once...she took the anesthesiologists hand and walked right in to the operating room...so brave! Her eyes are now perfectly straight, says her doctor! Then, Kendall got called to be the young men's 1st counselor, which was great, but takes a lot of time...more adjusting. We had a great summer and went camping a couple of times. We were sideswiped in our Suburban and had pretty good damage that seemed to take forever to get fixed. After that, the rest of the year seemed pretty calm. We were still busy, but no major changes. The interesting thing about this year is that although the financial burdens of medical bills, death and major change have been hard we have been able to do more than just cope. I know that is because we are immensely blessed! We are a closer family because we are led and directed by the Holy Ghost and then Heavenly Father can bless us when we are doing what he asks us to do. In no way does that mean that we think we are perfect, or that we are more deserving than anybody else, but I know for sure that the only reason we can be happy through our own personal trials is because we are trying to do what we have been asked. It's amazing what a difference there is when I try to do things by myself and when I ask my Heavenly Father for help...it's almost like I float through trials because part of the pain from the trial is lessened. Does that make sense??? The trial may not go away, but the heaviness of the burden can be lifted! Anyways, I am so thankful for this year; as hard as it was; because it brought us closer together and helped us to teach our children how to have a relationship with our Heavenly Father and Savior.

Anyhow, after going through the pictures I realized that even though I may be busy living life, I definitely will be taking a lot more pictures of our crazy life this year. I plan to have my camera out more often and take at least 1 picture a day! Even if every ones hair isn't done...that's my usual reason!!!

Here is the first picture of this year. Today we decided to stay home and snuggle all morning! Jack and Josh have been teething so they have been wanting to snuggle anyways, but Sam had school today and we played hooky! You just have to do that every once in a while.

After finger painting and play dough playing, while I painted the last forest green thing in our house...(pictures coming), they were back in my bed watching Wild Kratts.

While these two little stinkers were emptying out our dresser as quickly as they could!

What a great and slow day...my favorite!

Part two

2012-01-19T07:46:00.001-07:00

This year I had to do something that I hope to never ever have to do again!!!! I had to have a root canal! My face was so funny after the dentist got it all nice and numb...Kendall couldn't pass up the perfect opportunity to take a picture of me looking like a psycho! It makes me laugh every time I look at this picture. It's totally not exaggerated at all, I was just trying to smile, but even my eye corners wouldn't move.

Kendall's little helper has gotten way more helpful! It's really fun to watch their relationship grow!

Sam and Josh have this little bond that is sooo cute! Josh will always let Sam soothe him, and ever since we brought them home, Sam is just...simply...a little partial to Josh. It's a wonder then that they also look so much like each other!

Sam started preschool this September. I really debated on whether or not to send him because I've always felt that my kids would only be home for such a short time before they are out in the "system," being taught by other people, but in the end this has been sooooo good for him. He has always been such a social kid so I didn't think he needed the social aspect so much, but the importance he feels and the encouragement from other people has been really great for him...plus with his younger siblings taking so much time it's good for him to interact with people that don't expect him to be the "BIG" brother...you know?

Jack (left) and Josh had their first taste of black and red licorice. Their aunties Laura and Becky decided to sneak them this very messy treat to the annoyance of their mother! Their car seats and clothes were completely covered too! But they did look pretty dang cute all covered in goo.

Sam turned the big 5 in September! He was so excited to get his bb gun. He has been practicing in our back yard with Kendall and getting to be quite the shooter.

His other favorite was his big jug of pink milk mix!

We managed to snag a fairly decent family picture this fall. I realized that we didn't have a single family photo since the babies were born, so on a crazy Sunday I asked my mom to take some snapshots for us.

Sadly, this is the only picture I took of Halloween. Maggie was a "gnomeo," Sam was Bumblebee from Transformers...his very favorite movie, and Jack & Josh were Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb. Chloe and Seth stopped by to trick or treat at our house.

Man I love these happy boys. They are such good boys. Teething is most definitely not my favorite thing, but they are relatively easy babies! They are both so happy and sweet. It's so fun to watch them interact with each other. It seems like because they have always had a little person their own size that they are unusually social with other babies their same age. Josh almost always has a smile on his face and is our most curious and snugly baby. Explain that one. It seems so weird that he is on the extreme of those two things, but he really is.

Jack is such an outgoing baby...that is if he's at home. Often times when we are out and about he just stares at people he doesn't know. He has such a great sense of humor for one so small. He also loves to tease and smiles and laughs at us any time he catches anyones attention!

These pictures were on a day Sam was at school and Maggie was being so silly. She kept doing all of these goofy poses...she seriously is either my best friend or worst enemy. Kendall likes to say that it's just because she's a girl that she and I have this relationship, but he really thinks it's because we are so much alike. I love this little firecracker so much, and even when she is pushing my buttons until I almost lose it, she always manages to do whatever it takes to worm her way into making me laugh or melts me into snugly hugs and kisses!!!

I planned a surprise party for my mom's birthday this year, and we managed to squeeze 15 people in my fairly average/smallish sized kitchen! Luckily, Jeanette and Brad couldn't make it because somebody would have had to stand. We had a good time and almost managed to pull off the surprise, until the last minute when she pulled in at the same time as people walking in to my house!!!

We went and saw the lights pretty early this year and we had a great time. We took Trax downtown, which added to the adventure. Was it just me, or did the lights seem extra twinkly this year?

Christmas was soooo fun! It gets better every year...the kids are getting more and more into it. I love to see their excitement and joy in getting and giving gifts!

Quick catch up

2012-01-18T08:08:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd do two posts that have a ton of pictures from our 2011 year. This was quite the wild ride of a year for us...to say the least!

First off, a lovely picture of my ginormous prego belly. This was 3 weeks before delivery with the twins. I could have posted lots of pics of our whole delivery fiasco and hospital stays, but I didn't really want to go into that so much. Man, just looking at this picture makes me laugh! I can't believe how quickly I forgot the every minute uncomfortable-ness I felt!!!

We hosted the Thomson family campout this year. We camped on the Tooele side of Butterfield, and had such a great time. This is of our exciting game of minute to win it.

My boys after having shaved off the old man mullets they were sporting.

We had a really fun 4th of July. The kids loved the fireworks this year.

We put in a big sandpile in the back yard, and of course Sam spends the majority of the day outside driving his trucks.

Kendall played on a league basketball team and they took the trophy. He had so much fun/stress playing in real games, not just church ball.

Every year our ward does a 24th of July parade and party. So me, the babies, grandma and grandpa Johnson, and grandma Thomson watched from our lawn. It's so fun and the kids think they are so cool!

Maggie is such a good big sister. I catch her all of the time doing nice things or just giving them kisses and stroking their faces. Occasionally she does too much for how little she is, but for the most part she seems way older than two. Today I "caught" her reading them books. The funny part is that they are pretty interested in what she's "reading" to them!

I'm back!!!

2012-01-17T16:31:00.002-07:00

I finally have access to the internet again, so definitely keep an eye open for tons of posts to come!

cute stuff

2011-09-08T19:34:00.000-06:00

My cute boys up at swiss days.

Plus, be sure to check out my sisters fall boutique...she has a teaser on her blog!

Love it!

2011-08-10T10:42:00.000-06:00

I love it that one of my very best friends is an almost 5 year old boy!

This was of Sammy and his cousin Seth at wheeler farm

Yuck and oh cute!

2011-06-16T22:44:00.000-06:00

Kendall took a swipe into his hand last month with his knife. He was cutting some wire and gouged out this lovely cut. It took ten stitches and a nearly sick wife!

Jack and Josh are very often seen snuggling. If you lay them anywhere near each other they tend to link arms or legs...that is when they are chewing on the others fingers!

Tweezing

2011-06-14T17:51:00.000-06:00

There are several things I have learned over the course of the last 4 1/2 months. I will go over a couple of them:

Having tweezed eyebrows is a luxury, not a necessity! I have found that the only time I have to tweeze is in the car. So, if you see some weird girl tweezing her eyebrows in the car, don't judge...she just has very little time to herself!!!
Just because you have faced the hardest thing you have ever had to deal with doesn't mean that will be the hardest thing you will have to face!!! Carrying twins was hard, delivering twins was hard, having Jack in the hospital was hard, having Jack and Josh in the hospital with RSV was hard, getting Maggie's eye surgery done was hard, getting in a car accident and dealing with the stupid out of state insurance for the last six weeks was crappy, having the bronco break down so we are down to one car again sucks.....
We have received inumerable blessings!!! Through all of the above listed hard things...everything could have been so much worse, and I know we are being watched over by our Heavenly Father, and answers and warnings have come when we are trying to do what He asks!
Having two babies smile and coo at you all day long is indescribable.
Having two babies cry and poop all day long is indescribable.
Having two older children adore and love their little brothers is so sweet. I love watching/intervening their interactions!
I love my husband and family more than I ever have, and going through hard things makes us weaker, then stronger.
Skin that has been stretched out to it's absolute max does not shrink back quickly!

Photo shoot take two

2011-04-30T15:42:00.000-06:00

These are the rest of our photos

New photos

2011-04-11T16:20:00.000-06:00

Krista and I were able to do a small photo shoot of the kiddos the other day, and these are some of my favorites. It's definitely a lot harder to get 4 kiddos to "look this way!" and "smile, but not a psycho smile!!!".

Sam just chillin' with Josh.

Maggie loving on Josh.

Helping Jack stay happy.

Jack is thinking he is done with all these kisses.

Two is better than one!

2011-04-06T21:43:00.000-06:00

Ha, ha...you thought this was going to be about the twins!!!

These pictures serve two purposes. They are both before pictures and after.

Maggie had an eye doctors appointment this week...can you tell why???

Also, this is the before for her new do.

Doesn't she look so cute???

We are in the process of picking out glasses for her, so as soon as we get them I will post some pictures.

Canceling for now

2011-02-23T11:08:00.000-07:00

We are turning off our internet for now, and I'm writing this post even though I will still be updating my blog, just not as often. We were going to get this awesome deal for our tv, internet and phone that was seriously amazing. So I turned off our internet and phone through the provider we had, and set up the hook up through the new company, but as it turns out, our area will not support the new internet...darn those big trees! So now we are stuck in a satellite contract and until I can shop around a little we will no longer have internet. So, goodbye for now, but I promise to update as often as I can.

Holy Crap, is that really how huge I was???

2011-02-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

Just for laughs...I have to post this sad comparison. This was me on delivery day at the hospital. I never thought I would get as big as this poor woman below, but sadly I think I was definitely there! (This was just for you, Liz and Laura...I'm glad you can get a good laugh at my expense!!!)

Finally some pictures

2011-02-17T13:19:00.000-07:00

Tuesday started off with a call from Jack's nurse saying he could come home today. It was kind of a shock because they'd been telling us to expect Wednesday, so I was not at all prepared. The kids and I needed to be bathed, the house picked up and breakfast made, plus I had to find someone to watch all the kiddos since they can't be in the NICU at all. Luckily Laura offered to let me drop them all off at her work.

When I got there, Jack looked so good. All of the swelling had gone down, and the nurse and I excitedly removed the 4 monitoring tabby things that were left on him. He was snug as a bug in his car seat, just chillin while I signed all the discharge papers.

The nurse had to carry him down to my car, so I thought it'd be fun to get a goodbye shot of the NICU. Hopefully that will be the last time we ever have to be in that great place.

The first time they were together since they were in my tummy...11 days without each other. (Josh is on the left and Jack is in the hat.)

They seemed to snuggle up pretty fast. It's funny, I think I kind of expected a big reunion between the two, but they have just been quietly together.

Maggie and Sam have been a little sick, so they are limited to kissing the top of their heads and their feet. If either one has a hat on, it only stays on for a few minutes before Maggie has to give them kisses. She has been so sweet with them...in her own demanding little way...and I'm so glad she hasn't reacted in a mean way to them. Both her and Sam love them so much.

Announcement

2011-02-16T11:03:00.002-07:00

HE'S HOME, HE'S HOME, HE'S HOME, HE'S HOME, HE'S HOME!!!

More to come.

Adjusting

2011-02-10T22:35:00.001-07:00

We started off Tuesday morning with a spit bath for Josh. Sam couldn't get over how funny this phrase was. He had to confirm several times that we wouldn't "actually" be spitting on his brother. Maggie loved helping to wipe him off with her allotted wash clothe, but Josh definitely wasn't too fond of the bath.

Until we got to the lotion. He loved being rubbed down.

And come on...who wouldn't love having three different sets of hands rubbing them down with lotion??? (He definitely must have a little Thomson blood in him!)

He's definitely followed after Sam and Maggie with having blonde hair.

And I just can't get over those eyes staring up at me...plus did you happen to notice his adorable dimple in his chin???

This was our first attempt at some pictures together. It's a little squinty in this spot, but I love the look on Maggie's face. She's got 'tude and she's not afraid to show it! (Actually she was being very sweet during these pictures, her expression was just pretty typical.) A side note about Miss Maggie...drum roll please...she is officially potty trained, and she did it 100% on her own. Seriously, I'm not even exaggerating. She still wears a pull up at night just in case, but she goes through naps without any accidents and hasn't had an accident during the day for a while. I'm so proud of her, and I love how proud of herself she is. She's definitely my independant girl, that's for sure!

More of his cute blonde hair.

Maggie is so in love with these babies. She always wants to see him and kisses the top of his head probably 50 times a day...seriously. I can't wait to see how much she is going to love having two little snuggle bugs to love on.

A Jack update: He has done so awesome. This kid is a little trooper! He is off of all the medicines other than his last dose of antibiotics, which he will receive tomorrow. The IV that was in the artery in his arm is now out, and the IV in his head is gone too, but they put a new one in his foot. He is off of the forced air oxygen and now has a small tube that puffs air into his nose. I as able to nurse him today and he did awesome. He latched right on and nursed like he was an old pro. Kendall and I got to spend all afternoon with him and it was so fun to be able to snuggle him and sing him songs.

As we were sitting there, one of the life flight nurses came to get an update on him to send back to our delivering hospital. She was amazed to see how well he was doing...that he was off the ventilator and the nitrus. Then, she said, "Do you even realize how unusual that is. He was life flighted 4 days ago, on a ventilator 2 days ago, and on nitrus yesterday, and now he is initially med free and oxygen free." It put into perspective for sure!!! We are so blessed and we know Jack is being watched over. I can't believe that this has all happened within the last 6 days. It feels like we have been in the middle of it all for weeks.

And so it began...

2011-02-10T11:16:00.001-07:00

February 4 started out at 4:00 in the morning. I woke up so excited to see our babies that I couldn't go back to sleep so I started getting ready. We got to the hospital at around 6:10 am and started the process of getting hooked up to the machines and monitored. I was ecstatic to discover that I was already dilated to a 2 1/2 and 80% effaced. Plus, we could see from the machines that I was in active labor. I was starting to feel them when they hooked the pitocin up at 7:30. This was the first time that I have ever started into labor on my own...it was pretty exciting!

My epidural was put in around 9:00 and I was doing good. Liz came down to take our minds off of the whole laboring day...(with Maggie we were actually bored because it was a long boring day.) We played mormon bridge and Kendall kicked our butts. About halfway through the game I was starting to feel the contractions. My feet hadn't ever gone numb, just a little tingly. Then I could feel everything. Our awesome anesthesiologist came and tried adjusting the epidural several times, but with no luck. They ended up having to put in a new one...which ended up working fabulously. I could feel my legs completely and my belly and back were completely numb. Somewhere in the middle of this my doctor came and broke my water. so after all of this was done I started progressing pretty quickly. At about 3:45 the nurse checked me and said I was complete and not to move. They wheeled me into the OR (just in case anything dangerous happened) and the process began.

This is Kendall and my doctor right

before the action started!

At exactly 4:30 pm little Jack Wayne made his entrance, kicking and screaming. He was a healthy 6.3 oz and 17 1/2 inches long. He was pretty gurgly, but he was quickly handed off to a nurse to get him cleaned off.

Next came Joshua Gilbert. This little stinker had been breech my whole pregnancy, so he decided why not join the world that way! Just as my doctor broke his water he came feet first, so fast, there wasn't anything else to do. (The plan was to flip him around once Baby A had come out.) We were so blessed that our doctor was so skillful in twisting him around so he could come safely. Josh weighed 6.8 lbs and was 18 inches long. He actually didn't start crying for what seemed like forever, but after our doctor gave him a rubdown he quickly followed after his brothers screaming. It was one of the best sounds I've ever heard. Two healthy screams!!! (Both babies are named after their grandpas. Jack Wayne (Wayne is Kendall's dad's middle name, and Joshua Gilbert (Gilbert is my dad's middle name.)

After the delivery everything went so fast. They wheeled me into a recovery room and shortly after that brought me Josh. They told me that Kendall went with Jack to the NICU to help with his breathing. I didn't think much of it until later that evening the NICU specialist Dr. came and gave us some of the scariest news I've ever receiced in my life. She went over a big long list of terms and essentially told us that Jacks lungs were underdeveloped. They gave him a dose of surfactin and hoped for him to make a quick recovery. Kendall and Dad Johnson were able to give Jack a blessing and it was such a comfort. After that I new without a doubt that he would be okay. It was still hard to see him hooked up to all the machines and hear the bad news, but I had a peaceful feeling through this whole process that I new he'd be okay.

Kendall also gave me a blessing that I would be able to heal quickly and be able to meet the demands that I would be faced with, and I can't even describe how thankful I am for my amazing husband. He is such a strength to me and I am so blessed to be married to someone that I love more now than I could ever have imagined. This blessing has seriously been a reality. I feel so good, and my pain level has been so managable and relatively easy. I know we are being blessed without measure!

Mr. Josh getting his scrubdown. He is the pinkist baby. I love his healthy glow!

Snug after his long day.

While in our delivering hospital it seemed like the majority of the news we got was scary and negative. Jack was put on blood pressure medicine, steroids, surfactin, antibiotics and several other medicines to try to stabalize him, but nothing seemed to solve the problem.

He is our first baby to have dark hair. Josh has blonde hair like Sam and Maggie.

His little toes and fingers got to be pretty swolen. He also got cradle crown...that's where they get a little crown of swelling around their head.

Jack developed what it called pulmonary hypertension and the medicine he needed (Nitrus Oxide) wasn't available at our hospital so he needed to be moved to a bigger hospital.

He was life flighted on Sunday around 2:30. This was another of the scariest moments of my life. It was amazing to watch these amazing women tranfser him with supposed ease and care. Who new that this terrifying afternoon would make a huge impact on our lives.

We waved goodbye and took off to follow him up there. After picking mom up and filling my prescriptions we finally arrived and were able to see him. Immediatly when we talked to his nurse both Kendall and I started sobbing. We were blessed with the most amazing peace and comfort. We both new he was going to be okay and that he was where he could get the best help. On the flight over to the hospital he had already made improvement. After putting him on the Nitrus they were able to lower his oxygen level down within 15 minutes. It was amazing. Our experience here has been amazing. He has only been improving and every day he has met huge milestones. We were told that he definitely did not have underdeveloped lungs, but that he had swallowed too much fluid after his delivery. Part of his lung ended up collapsing and he developed pneumonia. Within 2 days being at the big hospital his high blood pressure was gone and he was being taken off of several medicines. We have been so blessed and we really appreciate all of your prayers and thoughts for us!!! Jack is no longer on a respirator, or the nitrus, and he is eating breast milk. They told me today that I can come up and nurse him. I was able to finally hold him yesterday and Kendall got to hold him on Tuesday. If he continues to progress as well as he has he should be able to come home next week. Hooray!!!

Nesting much?

2011-02-01T13:29:00.001-07:00

I don't know why, but I kept on putting off sewing blankets and car seat covers for the babies. I just didn't want to do it. But, this last week I buckled down and got them all sewn. I swear I have seen these super cute car seat covers everywhere lately, and I love them. I don't really like the ones that cover just the seat part because I think they are almost too snuggly for babies, so I really wanted to make some of these that are a little looser. Plus, I'm thinking they might prevent people from touching them in stores while they are sleeping...who knows.

These are the undersides of the covers.

These are the flannel receiving blankets I made. If any of you don't know how to make these, they are super easy!!! I buy 45 inches of fabric so they are square. Then you just sew right sides together, leaving a 5 inch opening, so you can pull the printed part through. Then just stitch up the opening and iron. Seriously it's that easy! (That's the same thing I did for the car seat covers, but I only used a yard of those fabrics, then I just made some velcro straps and sewed them on in the middle. It took about 2 hours to sew the 3 blankets and the 2 car seat covers.

I decided to only sew one cute quilt because I had a really cute quilt that my sister Jeanette made for Sam that we will also use. I found this material at The Material Girls quilt shop. It was on clearance so I think that for the whole top of the quilt it cost about $12.00. For this quilt I just cut my fabric into different sized strips and sewed them together. Then I ironed all the edges down flat. Then I sewed the rick rack on. I used the warm and comfy (or whatever the thin cotton batting is) for the batting. I don't like the thick batting when I use minky fabric for the back because it makes it so warm. I got the minky fabric from Joann's with a %50 off coupon so it made that $6.50 a yard and I had to get 60 inches of that. So it made that fabric about $11.50. And I got the batting with a %50 coupon so it made that $5.00. So total for my quilt was $28.50. Which may seem like a lot to some of you, but if you have ever made a quilt you know that that is a great price! I was pretty proud of myself. This quilt (for some reason I never took a good picture of this blanket, but you can see part of it in the second picture on this post) I made for Maggie was over $50.00 because the material for the top wasn't on sale at all.

To finish the edges of this quilt I cut strips of the leftover minky fabric and used those for the binding.

So now we are officially ready for these babies to come. I even got our bag and the kids' bags all packed. Now if we can just keep our house clean we will be set.

At my dr. appointment on Thursday the babies were measuring 6.7 lbs and 6.8 lbs (ultrasounds have +/- 16 ounces) so they are looking good and healthy. The best news though, was that I will be induced on Friday morning if I haven't had them by then...hooray!!!

Finally some finished projects and a prego shot

2011-01-27T08:36:00.000-07:00

Okay, here is a picture of me at 36 1/2 weeks along. This was at night, and I was super tired...plus I'm not wearing any makeup...so don't judge!

I have finally completed my picture wall. The two 11x14 frames that are empty are for the babies.

This is a better picture because it doesn't have a glare, but is at a weird angle.

This is from the other side.

Kendall has officially finished our tile!!! Hooray! It looks so pretty, and I can't believe how much I love it. I have always been a hardwood floors person, but I'm sold on tile. We chose 18x18 tile from Arizona Tile, and the maintenance with little kids is pretty awesome. This also has our unfinished table and chairs. I still need to do another coat of red on the table, and the two remaining wood chairs will be brown. We've still got to finish the base and touch up paint, but the end is officially in sight!

This is a before of the same part of our kitchen:

We had two pretty big crashes tonight. Sam fell off of a toy he was balancing on and wacked his chest on another toy. Then Maggie was teasing Sam by stilling his toys and running, and she fell on the tip of the coffee table and got a huge welt on her cheek, and bit through her lip. Poor little choppies!

Here is our nearly complete bathroom. I couldn't get a very good angle on this, so this is what you get. We just have to finish painting the bead board, trim and base white. So in love with how this turned out. Kendall did an awesome job. It's amazing how a "simple" project can turn into several plumbing problems. We haven't ever messed with plumbing before, and Kendall is still tweaking the faucet. Oh well, at least it's on it's way to looking beautiful. I got my shower curtain at Target.

Before of bathroom:

We ripped out the ugly vanity and mirror that were in here before and put in this pedestal sink that I am loving. It gives us so much more space in here, plus we have a big linen closet in the hall way right out the door for storage. I found this mirror at the DI for $10.00. It was a white and gold color and I spray painted it a glossy green color. This isn't a very good picture for color quality, but it's the same green that's in the shower curtain. Now we need new globes for our light fixture and some hardware for towel racks.

Before of vanity and ugly sink:

The DI is great!

2011-01-25T23:56:00.002-07:00

Saturday morning my sister Laura, Maggie and I went out on a shopping trip. First we hit the Quilted Bear where we found some really cute ideas. Then Tai Pan. I got a really cute vase that I'm going to use as a dome. Then we hit two thrift stores. I found some great stuff this trip. It's funny because I've heard so many people say that they never find anything good, but seriously, it completely depends on the day. I have been looking for a headboard for Miss Mags for a little while and found this one for $5.00. I'm going to paint it and then cover the ugly middle part in cushy stuff and fabric. Can't wait. Then I found this awesome candle stick for $2.00. I was originally going to paint it, but the gold is kind of wearing on me. Then the best find of the day was this doll crib for $2.00. I have been looking for a wooden crib forever and was so excited to find this one. It will get a makeover of paint and a bottom, then I will make it a little cushion and probably a pillow and blanket.

One of Maggie's favorite things to do is copy Sam and one of his favorite things to do is run as fast as he can while pushing his dump truck. So of course she has to do the same. I lucked out last year when I found a second dump truck at the DI for a couple bucks. I totally had in mind that the 2nd one would be for Kendall to play in the sand pile with Sam, but oh no, that is definitely Maggie's.

I have decided that I am boycotting winter. It had been so pretty outside, and since I took down my Christmas decor, my snowmen were looking pretty sad. So I decided to jump right in to spring. Part of my insanity is also because I'm not sure when I will get around to making this change once the babies come. Plus, it makes me super happy anytime I walk by this happy mantle! As you can see my new/old candle stick is being sported. Doesn't the gold look kind of cute? Plus, my new globe is also displayed; it's the third from the right. The stitchery is one my mom made in the 70's or 80's, which I absolutely love. I was originally going to paint the frame and use it in Maggie's room, which I may still do, but I'm loving it with the other oranges and yellows. I got the teal vase from the DI as well, and the flowers are all from different excursions to Tai Pan. I had them all arranged with different flowers and decided to make a new combo. I especially love the raspberry branches.

What have you found at the DI lately? Or do you think the DI is gross...if you do, I don't think we can be friends any longer!

Is anyone else as tired of winter as I am? If so, go ahead and start putting up some springy things in your house...I promise it will make you happy...even if your husband thinks you are a little crazy!

The news

2011-01-18T23:46:00.000-07:00

I had my 34/35 week checkup today. I say 34/35 because at my last appointment 3 weeks ago...I missed my last weeks appointment because of dad's funeral...they said the babies were measuring a week big, so they bumped up my due date, but I'm still a little skeptical, hence the 34/35. Anywho, I am officially dilated to a 1 and I've had a few contractions in the night that were strong enough to wake me up. My doctor didn't seem at all concerned because they were very irregular and went away. I will supposedly be having these kiddos on or before the 4th of February, which is only 2 1/2 week away...yikes! My doctor also said how glad he was that everything has been going so smoothly, he said that doesn't happen that often with twins and that we, the babies and I, were doing awesome. I can't believe how fast it has come. On the one hand I am super excited to see what they look like and to be able to hold them (not to mention my excitement over not having to lug them along in my belly any more), but nervous for the delivery and life with two babies. Next week I will have another ultrasound and dr.s appointment and he said we make our plans from there.

Last night Mom and Dad Johnson took us to Target to get another car seat for baby number 2 and we got our other one out of storage today. I kind of feel bad for the baby who gets stuck in the old one because it isn't nearly as cute or plush as the new one...I guess we will have to take turns so neither one will get too spoiled! Sam and Maggie have been willingly trying them out for us and have deemed them both fabulous. Then today the kids and I hit Material Girls after my appointment and we scored some super cute sale material to make car seat covers for the babies and a new twin bedspread for Maggie. Sam was so proud that he picked the final selections for the babies. He is getting so excited for them to come and I hope that lasts after they get here. We've been talking about how babies are kind of boring and that they don't do much at first because he has been super excited to have brothers...I think he thought he'd have instant playmates. But he tells me he's okay with having to teach them how to play. He's going to be such a great helper. Maggie, on the other hand, I'm not so sure about. She absolutely loves babies, and is usually seen carrying a baby or pushing one in her stroller, but we'll see how she adjusts to not only being de-throwned but double de-throwned.

I promise to have pictures soon! I have a ton of updates that I need to take pictures of and I definitely need some good shots of this ginormous belly. That's another thing I won't miss...walking into a room and having everyone do a double take at my bulbous middle!!!

Only the beginning

2011-01-18T22:59:00.000-07:00

I've kind of dreaded this post, but I feel like I can't keep on blogging past my dad's obituary without some feelings expressed by me. So, here goes!

This last three weeks has been a little bit insane. It started right after Christmas. My dad was having noticable declines daily. Kendall, me and the kiddos stayed at my parents house from the 26th through the 1st of January. I had my dr.s appointment that was going to decide my bedridden fate on Tuesday so my thought this would be a good week to have have us come and stay so Kendall could get our bathroom all torn out and remodeled. I'm really glad I got the chance to spend so much time with Dad that week because everything happened so fast. On Thursday the 30th Ivan (the hospice caregiver) had trouble getting him too and from the bathroom to his chair and had to lay him down in the hallway until my mom could bring him the wheel chair. They got him settled back into his bed and he wasn't able to get out of it again. That night we had what was going to be a girl party at mom's with Jeanette, Becky Laura, me and mom, but it ended up being a looking through pictures party. Thursday night was pretty crazy...Jeanette and I were talking in the family room when we heard noises coming from dad's room. It was around 12:30 am when we went in and dad was trying to communicate, but couldn't get his words to come out clear, but his eyes were racing around the room and then he lifted up his hand and started pointing. Jeanette and I looked at each other and new that he was speaking with and seeing people that we couldn't see, but could feel. I asked dad if there were people there with him and he gave a small nod yes. It was a pretty special experience and from then on almost every time went into his room I could feel the pressence of family. On Friday the nurse came and checked him and ended up putting a catheter in. Dad didn't want to eat at all after Thursday but was still drinking water at this point. We rallied the family together to let them know that they probably needed to come pretty quickly to visit dad. Everyone was able to come within the next two days. It was really neat to me to see how unified our family can be. I really love my brothers and sisters (including in-laws) so much and they are a huge strength to me. On Sunday night we all got together again and the boys gave dad a blessing. I'm so thankful for the Priesthood in my life, and I'm so glad to alway have had a Father who was willing and anxious to excercise his Priesthood. It was a great blessing and afterwards we sang some primary songs. Although dad was pretty out of it I think he really liked that we were all there together.

From Monday on he just kept declining and looking worse and finally on Friday the 7th at 7:45 in the morning he passed. All of the siblings got together and we were able to begin truly mourning.

The viewing was on Monday night and then the funeral was on Tuesday. It ended up being a great tribute to my dad and I am so glad it turned out the way it did.

I wanted to give a thank you to all of you who have been praying for us and thinking about us. It has meant a lot.

We love you dad

2011-01-10T08:50:00.001-07:00

Thomas Gilbert Thomson

(April 30, 1945 - January 7, 2011)

Our loving husband, father & grandfather passed away peacefully at home on January 7, 2011. Tom, 65, had a long struggle with Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s disease. He was born April 30, 1945, in SLC to Gladys & Thomas Marshall Thomson. He graduated from West High & served an LDS mission to the Gulf States. Tom married Karen McDermaid in the Salt Lake Temple on November 17, 1967. He was the owner & operator of Tom’s Iron Works. He was a faithful member of the LDS church serving in many callings including: Stake President, Bishop, High Counselor, YM President & Home Teacher. We will miss him dearly, especially his silly sense of humor & his love of family! Tom is survived by his wife, Karen, children: Laura (Guy) Lewis, Wendy (Russ) Steeneck, Jeanette (Brad) Atkinson, Becky (Dan) Hancock, Liz (Dan) Davis, Krista (Jeff) McMillan, Tom Jr. (Jenn) Thomson, Erin (Kendall) Johnson; 24 grandchildren with twins on the way. Also survived by his mother, Gladys Thomson Avery & siblings: Kathy (Alan) Parker, Debby (David) Plummer, Gary (Diana) Thomson, & Jeff (Judy) Thomson. He was preceded in death by his father & granddaughter, Dayna. Funeral services will be held on Tuesday, January 11th at 11:00 in the South Jordan Parkway Stake Center, 9894 S. 2700 West. A viewing will be held Monday, January 10th from 6:30 to 8:30 & Tuesday from 9:30 to 10:30 with both visitations held at the Stake Center. Interment: Valley View Memorial Park, 4335 West 4100 South, West Valley City.

Baby bump update

2010-12-29T12:55:00.001-07:00

So, the much anticipated/worried over doctors appointment was yesterday. First off I had an ultra sound. The boys are looking great! They are measuring in at 4.2 lbs and 4.3 lbs. and their measurments are a little big, so they have bumped my due date up to the 18th of February instead of the 25th. Then my doctor decided that I didn't need to go on bed rest after all because I haven't been having any contractions...Hooray!!! I was so excited. He said I still need to take it easy and rest a lot during the day. The craziest news was that he said he thought they'd come by the end of January!!! Crazy!

Kendall has finished all the tile in the kitchen and hallway and now has the whole bathroom torn out so it can be updated and tiled. I can't wait for this to be behind us, so that our remodeling can take a break for a while!!!

The real gift I want to give

2010-12-17T10:12:00.001-07:00

I'd read this post today from Under the Sycamore and she pretty much nailed how I'm feeling exactly on the head. I thought I'd share parts of her post along with my own thoughts.

There is one thing my kids ask me to give them more than anything else: my presence. Their biggest want comes in the form of

“Mommy will you…..

play with me,

push me on the swing,

cuddle with me,

tickle me,

help me,

color with me,

watch me.”

It is all too easy for me to be too busy with things that I claim aren’t my priorities while not giving undivided attention to the ones that are my priorities. Just one more email, another load of laundry to fold, dishes to wash, trucks to pick up, floors to vaccuum, tables to paint…there is always something I can give my attention to. My ‘to do’ list grows faster than I can check things off.

I want to do better at giving them my presence….it is what they really want. They want it more than anything I can buy at a store or make with my hands. I think it is the greatest gift I can give them…not because I am a fabulous mom, but because I am their mom. In all my failures, mistakes, screw-ups. In all my home runs, great moments and got it rights. I am their mom. That is enough for them. Isn’t it great to be loved by a child?!

I know I am supposed to be taking it easy, but I also feel like such a crappy mom lately because I'm always so tired and needing to rest so often. Then, on the few spurts of energy I do get I feel like I have to tackle the 50 thousand things that "need to get done before the bedrest starts and the babies come." I can't even tell you how many times I think that in a day! So when I read her post today it was exactly what I needed to hear. Dishes can wait, the laundry will still be there, my house doesn't have to be finished yet, and it's okay to rest because I need it and so do these other two kiddos!

Just a side note...I hit the 30 week mark today!!! Hooray.

Making a list and checking it....

2010-12-13T06:49:00.004-07:00

...not so much twice, but I've definitely got a list! We are coming towards the end of our major tiling project and all I can say is that I can't wait to have my house back! Christmas has pretty much been put on hold until we're done. So I thought that I'd mention a few of the things that need to be done in order for our house to look and feel like Christmas threw up in it!

First off, Kendall has to finish laying the last of the cut pieces of tile that border the perimeter of our kitchen, and the couple of pieces that need to be cut for the 2 hall closets. Once that's done he can do the grouting.,,hooray! I can't wait to see what it all looks like pulled together into a finished product! We bought the base board for our kitchen and hallway too, so that should be able to go up this week too. We have kind of a nontraditional idea for our base boards, and I'm thinking it is going to be awesome and way less expensive, so there will be a tutorial/lots of pictures to come.

We have our eye on and made an offer on the new vehicle we want and are just anxiously waiting for the sellers to call us and let us know if they accept. I can't wait to have two vehicles again, and to not have to hoist myself up into the very huge bronco. Seriously, I never realized my body could get sore from merely getting into a vehicle, but oh yes, after half jumping/half pulling myself in and out of this beast I am 100% beat. {Do you see from the picture how high I have to lift my leg in order to even attempt to climb into this sucker...it's upper thigh on my 6'2" husband!!!} It definitely doesn't help that the two kiddos inside of me are making it so that doing pretty much anything is getting to be difficult, but come on! Our new/old SUV has running boards that not only make it easy for me to get into, but Maggie can even climb up into her seat...hooray for family size SUV's!!!

I bought the paint to repaint my kitchen table, so it will go from daffodil yellow to a really pretty red. I then got two new paints to do the chairs with. Two chairs will be crushed oregano green, two will be a pretty brown, and two will be daffodil yellow. Can't wait to have the tile done so that my table and chairs can come out of the stuffed front room and I can finish this project...which will also hopefully be done this week. Before and after pictures of this will also be coming.

Once my table is painted I will pull out the sewing machine and have a day of sewing. Mending, finishing blankets for the babies, and maybe making a few pillows while I'm at it!

Move all the stuff that's migrated into our front room back to their homes. Which then means that we can put up our Christmas tree.

Sometime this month we will be buying this loft bed I've had my eye on for Mr. Samuel. He is sooo sooo excited to have to climb a ladder to get into his bed. I was searching on KSL for one in our price range and I showed him the one I want. He was so excited and asked if he could play trucks up there? I thought it was a funny question until I thought about it for a minute. At least once a week he'll ask to play in his and Maggie's room with the door shut so he can play in piece without the "Maggie Monster" messing up/ trying to play with him. It was funny because I could almost see the wheels turning that if he has a tall bed he can play in peace...sadly for him, Maggie knows how to climb and will most definitely not let a little ladder keep her brother away from her!!!

All I have to say is that it really stinks to remodel anything that is a major part of your living space during the holidays because everything is being put on hold so that we can either work on our projects, or because everything is such a mess. I know, I know, this is 100% my fault because I told Kendall that all I want for Christmas is to have our kitchen done...but man, you don't appreciate how much you live in the kitchen until it can't function for several days/weeks. I will be so happy when this whole mess is done...and on the very plus side, it's looking beautiful and I love to see all the colors of our house coming together into what I envisioned when we bought this 70's house!!!

R.I.P good old Blazer

2010-12-02T10:14:00.001-07:00

Techinically it didn't actually die, we just finally sold it. Hooray! It was actually a really bittersweet thing because as many of you know we had to put a new engine into it when it hit 89,000 miles, plus, we weren't expecting to outgrow it so quickly, plus we'd had for it nearly as long as we've been married. Oh well, at least we didn't have to trade it in and get practically nothing for it. It was so funny/really weird because the guy who bought it paid us with his tip money...so it was $2,750 $1.00 bills and the other $500.00 was in $20's 10's and $5's. The lady at the bank said they'd never had that happen before. Crazy huh! We both agreed we didn't want to know what he did for a living and sanitized our hands quickly after running the money through their counting machine. Gross!!!

A few of my favorite things this week

2010-11-22T14:57:00.015-07:00

We have been having lots of these this week...

I absolutely love having a wood burning fireplace. The sound of the crackling wood and the smell of the fire sets the holiday season off so well.

I'm loving this purse that is also a fabulous camera bag....so clever and cute! It's definitely going on my wish list.

Thinking of a way that I can incorporate this for our stockings this year.

Laura and I started making these book paper flowers on Saturday, and I can't wait to show you the finished product. They are very cute and pretty easy...after you get the hang of it.

And last, but certainly not lease...my favorite thing this week is that we got a major start on the tile project in the kitchen. Although our whole house seems torn up and a ginormous mess, I am so excited to have this project behind us. My sexy husband tearing out the old ugly linoleum...and yes, this was a reluctant pose from him.

Sam concentrating very hard.

Helping us pull out all the nails.

There were definitely a few of these moments...

...until we found another hammer.

Already looking 1,000 x better!

Christmas Crafts

2010-11-19T07:59:00.004-07:00

Okay, do you or anyone you know want some super cute Christmas and Winter crafts? My sisters just had their boutique and have some leftovers. Check out my sister Becky's craft blog to see what they have left and be sure to email her with your order. Here are a few of my favorite items.

Let it Snow $12.00

I picked this snowman. Love, love, love her arms and the colors. $12.00

I also got one of these trees. They are so cute. She felted the ornaments on. I was going to make these, but at this price ($6.00 each) why in the heck would I???

Loving the vintage-y ness of this white tree. ($7.00)

Love this hand sewn Advent Calendar, and it's only $38.00.

Joy to the World Subway art ($13.00)

I had purchased this advent from Becky last year and can't wait to put it up! ($30.00)

25 Weeks

2010-11-16T13:11:00.004-07:00

Allright, this is me 25 weeks prego with twins. It's weird because I feel big, but when I look at pictures I feel really big. Oh well, I've got about 10-13 more weeks of this so I guess I better just get used to it!

A bit of every day...

2010-11-15T15:33:00.002-07:00

I have been thinking a lot about our every day activities and thinking of ways to capture what we do. Not that we are very exciting, but I seem to only get the camera out when the kiddos are doing something super cute, or important. So I have been wanting to take more pictures of the "mundane."

Grandma Johnson saw this tu-tu at Costco and decided that Miss Maggie needed one. When she saw it she couldn't wait to put it on and has worn it around the house and out and about for days. She's cheesin' it up.

"Oh yes, did you want to see what I am eating??? Here you go."

A daily ritual we have is Maggie helping me "wash" the dishes. She loves to pour water from container to container and especially loves to scrub the dishes.

Loving those tootsers!

Pink milk is a must at our house. Sam probably has 3-4 sippy cups full a day. Luckily we only buy it occasionally so once it's gone he has to wait a while for more. Blowing bubbles is a must!

I was pretty bumbed this year that we missed the "Fall" season for taking pictures, but I still needed some current photos of the kiddos. I just set up a bench in our front yard and snapped some quick shots on our way out shopping one day. I know that seems overwhelming sometimes, but I think you get some of the best shots that way. Give it a try. A trick I have learned is for me to stand on stairs or a chair, that way I get a great angle on their cute little faces.

A few finished projects and few in the works

2010-11-13T15:45:00.002-07:00

I don't know about you, but I am not the type of person who has to have a million things going and finishing a thousand projects to feel successful. Plain and simple I just like making stuff. I've been having people ask me how I get all my crafty stuff done, so I thought I would try and answer that. Everyone has things they spend their free time doing, watching TV, obsessively cleaning, vacationing, reading, shopping, etc. I go through major spurts of creativity and it tends to be late at night or when Maggie is taking her daily nap. Sam and I have been having a lot of fun painting and organizing and arranging. He loves to help me "set up" the holiday stuff. Plus, I recently read this blog post and it really helped me put into perspective what is most important on my never ending to do list. I am not really a list making person...I kind of like to go with the flow and do projects when I feel like it, but I think this post may have made a believer out of me. I've also kind of realized that a lack of planning was really a luxury I had when I only had two kids (and wasn't carrying twins). Things are getting more chaotic and if I want to keep up with them and at least feel like I am somewhat staying on top of the daily grind I have to start scheduling in the things that are important to me like doing projects and a weekly organization project, painting my kitchen table, finishing our bathroom....just to name a few.

Anwhoo, sorry for the long winded thoughts. I had been feeling a little defensive about my crafting lately. It kind of bothers me when people ask how I find the time to craft. It always seems to me like they are saying "you should be doing other things." So that is my explanation of why and when I do my projects.

So, after all that, here are some of my finished projects. I know I already posted a picture of my Fall mantle, but since I put it up so early I had to take it down and do a Halloween mantle. So this is my 2nd Fall mantle...lame I know! The reason I am posting it at all is because I scored this cute mirror from my sister Laura. It was black and I painted it this yellowish green color.

This is my family wall as it is coming together. I have painted all the frames white...which I did with 3 different spray paints. A glossy white, a satin white, and a flat white. I really like the way the different paints give the wall some texture and dimension. I also got my dark brown mattes cut at Joann's. I was experimenting with the teal mattes, and just don't like them, so those will be taken out and I have decided not to have any other mattes in the frames. Now I just have to get the pictures printed and get the tacky stuff put on the backs so they stay straight!

I had scored some pillow forms at our yard sale and had been planning to make pillow for my front room forever. Well I finally got around to it and this is the first one. I pieced together all the strips and then just embellished them with some fabric flowers. Super easy!

I saw some monogrammed pillows for sale on Etsy and fell in love with them. But I couldn't bring myself to spend the $60.00 they cost so I sewed my own. I found a font I like and then just drew my letter on my fabric. I chose a brown chord material because it matches the couch we have in our front room. Them I went with orangey red button and poms to accent. I have decided the colors in here are going to be teals, turquoises, browns and oranges and green. Kind of a lot of color, and not normally what I would pick, but I am really liking them all together.

I painted our coffee table this Antique Green from Americana paint. First Sam, Maggie and I banged up the table top with hammers and nails and screws. We had a blast pounding it out. Then I painted the green layers, then sanded the edges to give it an even more distressed look. Then I gave it an antiquing coat. I used a walnut colored antique. Lastly I need to spray on a coat of sealer so it doesn't get stains and scratch as easily.

This is a lamp I got from our yard sale as well. Kendall always teases me that I come home with more stuff than I sell when I do yard sales with my sisters...but I always say that at least I'm not spending new money, I'm simply trading the old for new. This was also black when I got it and I painted it a teal that I mixed with some craft paint. I found the shade at Target. It had kind of a burlap quality.

And last but certainly not least...we finally said goodbye to Nemo. This horrible toilet seat was only part of our strange bathroom. The man who owned our house before us was a 40 something guy who had a complete fish bathroom. This toilet seat has a matching border that is hideous, as well as blue walls and a blue sealing. I can't wait to have this bathroom finished!

A day of fun

2010-11-12T06:46:00.000-07:00

Our neighbor has a few leafy trees in his front yard, and the other day he was raking up the leaves and invited the kiddos over to come and jump in them. I think it made their day! At first they were just running through them.

Then Kendall started tossing them into the huge pile. They were laughing so hard. I love this picture of Maggie because every time she'd run to Kendall and say "please," then when he'd toss her in she'd have this mixed look of terror and delight. It was hilarious!

Can't you just feel the bugs crawling on you...ewww!

In the end even Kendall had to try it out. He thought the babies would think it was fun too and I said "Over my dead body!" Being completely surrounded in leaves is definitely not something that sounds fun to me!

On Tuesday we watched my dad for the day while my mom went to the doctor and ran some errands. My dad is starting to slip pretty fast and his joking and silliness has started to make the kids a little uneasy, but by the end of the day he was laying on the ground and Sam and Maggie just started kissing him. I had to keep reminding Sam that he couldn't rough house with Grandpa like he used too and he needed a fairly detailed reason why not, so I guess in the end giving kisses seemed like a good alternative.

Fairwell to October and another photo shoot

2010-11-05T09:22:00.001-06:00

Obviously, Halloween is over, but I thought I'd throw in these last few pictures of what we were up to. We had a skull breakfast on Saturday morning, and I have to say that this was Sam's very favorite of all of our spooky meals. It will definitely be a repeat.

We are pretty lame because we didn't even get our pumpkins carved before the big day. I woke up feeling really crappy...the runs and puky stomach...and it pretty much lasted until the afternoon after I was able to sleep it off for a while. So I didn't get hardly anything I had planned for the day done. I didn't even take a single picture of them in their costumes! So sad!!!

We hit the Target clearance yesterday and picked up a pumpkin carving kit for $1.00, so Sam desperately wanted to come home and carve our pumpkins. This is the pattern he picked. We also figured out what we are going to be for Halloween next year. I scored tweedle dee and tweedle dum costumes for the twins, and Maggie will be Alice and Sammy will be the Mad hatter! I can hardly wait!!!

Then, yesterday afternoon I took some family photos of the Larsen's. We went to Murray park and it was such a pretty day.

Aaaaack!!!

2010-11-03T15:01:00.001-06:00

Today was kind of a crazy day. It started out bright and early, (6:00, which is pretty early for us, normally we wake up around 7:30...) to very cheerful children...I hate those kinds of days! (Just kidding, but I am normally the type of person who likes to wake up in steps, so when they wake up and are ready to start our day too early it makes for a long morning.) Then we lazily ate breakfast downstairs while we watched/snoozed through the morning pbs and kbyu shows. The rest of the day was fairly productive, I got a long awaited skirt made for Maggie while she was napping, and we all got bathed and fresh. The mountains of laundry are still in the process of being finished.

So, here comes the Aaaack part. While I was upstairs doing my hair the kids were downstairs playing with the cushions on the couch and this big box we have left over from the microwave. They were giggling and having a party. When I came down to switch laundry loads I noticed Maggie looked extremely suspisious...that's when I noticed the marker!!! On one of my laundry trips I had forgotten to close the door tightly. Our laundry room is big, so our computer and scrap book supplies and all sorts of goodies are housed in the same room. She had wandered in there...more like ran with delight...when she realized I'd left the door open. She then proceeded to color on some of the cushions of their fort!!! The best part is that it was a permanent marker. At least it's a golden yellow though, so it's not super dark or noticeable!

Baby update

2010-10-28T20:07:00.001-06:00

I went in for my ultrasound with a specialist yesterday and he said everything looks great. The babies are still both measuring exactly the same at 1 lb 2 oz and are measuring right on for my February 25 due date. I found at that I will for sure be induced by 38 weeks if I haven't already gone into labor, so I was figuring that out today and that means that these kiddos will be in 15 weeks or less!!! Yikes! That seems sooooo close. This is a picture of me at 23 weeks. I just took this picture after a long day and two pretty much sleepless nights, so please don't judge! I think I already look like I'm going to delivery next week...what in the world will 15 more weeks look like???

Hooray it's finally feeling like fall!

2010-10-25T16:49:00.001-06:00

We woke up today to find this!!! Sam was so excited that it had snowed he could hardly contain himself. The first thing he wanted to do was put on his hat and gloves so he could play. We had to run to Target first though because Miss Mags didn't have any snow boots that fit. As soon as we got home they both were so happy making tracks in the snow and then Sam took to sliding on his knees.

This is the face I got after some snow snuck under his coat and onto his tummy. But do you think he was ready to come inside??? Definitely not.

This is the first year Maggie has really played in the snow and she was just as excited as Sam. As you can see her gear isn't as water proof as his yet, but that definitely didn't stop her!

Loving that goofy face! She picked these boots out today. I was surprised that she picked these over the hello kitty ones and the cute zebra stripes. She loves the eyes. While kneeling down, she points to the eyes and says "eyes!" and then laughs.

After the fun in the snow we decided to make some chex mix, then snuggle up and watch Shrek 2 that we borrowed from grandma. What a great day!

Just for fun I thought I'd throw in these two fun "spooky" meals we've had this October. We also had spider pancakes and spooky cupcakes, but I forgot to take pictures before they got scarfed down.

Yes, that is my prego belly poking into the picture!!!

My first family photo shoot

2010-10-24T14:51:00.002-06:00

My sister in law Racheal had asked me to take their family pictures this year and she really wanted them in the fall. But because of uncontrollable circumstances we thought we might have missed the pretty-ness this year. Luckily, yesterday there was a small break in the crappy weather and we were able to sneak in some good shots. Keep in mind that I have never done family pictures before, so they are in no way professional. These are just a few of my favorites. They were so great to work with!!!

Nicki is so cute, and I just loved the way the fall colors danced off of her adorable eyes!

This is probably my favorite shot of the day! I love the way it turned out.

Charlotte Jane Thomson

2010-10-23T10:14:00.002-06:00

Finally, after much waiting...and the longest pregnancy ever...Charlotte Jane Thomson has joined our family. Tom and Jen had her on Thursday, and we couldn't be any more in love with her...just check out the pictures and you will be too!

Hooray!!!

2010-10-20T13:06:00.001-06:00

My beautiful camera is finally home!!! I have been having to use my point and shoot Canon, and I can't believe how much I missed this guy. Luckily the flash problem was covered under warranty so it only cost me shipping to get it fixed! I am seriously so glad to have this whole process done with!

Shriver Report Gives a Face to Alzheimer's

2010-10-19T18:09:00.002-06:00

This is a little video I found after watching World New with Diane Sawyer tonight. I thought is was very interesting, and the site is pretty awesome for those of us who are interested in this disease. Check it out if you'd like, but you may need some kleenex.

Craft Sale

2010-10-18T16:19:00.001-06:00

Hey guys...if you are looking, or even if you're not, for some cute Halloween crafts go check out my sisters blog to find some amazing deals on their blowout crafts. They had a boutique 2 weeks ago and are now just trying to get rid of leftovers. These are just a few of my favorite things they have:

Thoughts

2010-10-14T20:47:00.003-06:00

I have been feeling a little overwhelmed and I don't know...nervous lately. Most of the time I'm really excited to have two new little people added into our craziness, but lately I am feeling more and more nervous for Sam and Maggie. I'm not worried about the babies because, although I know it's going to be difficult, I know we can do this; but how can two parents and only one during the day be spread so thin as to cover and take care of everyones physical and emotional needs...including my own. I worry that because they are older...even if it is only by a few measley years...they will have to grow up too fast and miss out on time they need to be nourished and snuggled. I really hope they don't feel too jilted...espescially Sam. He is such a sweet and sensitive kid and he's adjusted so well to having a little sister, but will he end up being that kid that acts out because he's not getting enough one on one attention? I sure hope not. I know so many of you have more kids than I do and not only make it work, but make it work well...but 4 kids in 4 years is not what I expected or planned on, and although I know that Heavenly Father knows I can do this, sometimes it's hard to have that confidence in myself!

Yesterday I woke up and decided that Sam and I needed to go on a date. So I checked out what was playing at the $1.00 theater and luckily Toy Story 3 was still playing. We dropped Miss Mags off at Steph's and headed to the movie. He was so excited and when we got sat down he turned to me and said, "Mom.......next time you ask me to stop teasing Maggie so we can go on a date......I will." This was due to the threats that if I had to ask him to stop teasing his sister one more time that morning we'd call the whole thing off.

Then that night I was reading Nie Nie's blog (one of the most amazing people I've ever been inspired by!) and this song was posted. I actually started to cry when I listened to it and had to buy it from itunes. The lyrics are pretty much exactly how I am feeling right now. I am so in love with my kiddos and I hate that every time I blink they get a little bigger. I just hope they can take me along on their journeys.

Hourglass

Mindy Gledhill
© 2010 Blue Morph Music (BMI)

Little boy, when you speak
I can't help but kiss your cheeks
I love the way you grab my hands
And tell me all about your plans

Rocket high, comets fly
You and I could take a ride
And fly away to Neverland
And give our best to Peter Pan

When you reach for the stars
Don't forget who you are
And please don't turn around and grow up way too fast
See the sand in my grasp
From the first to the last
Every grain becomes a memory of the past

Oh, life's an hourglass
Life's an hourglass

Story's read, prayer is said
Close your eyes sleepyhead
While angels linger in your dreams
And hold you in their feathered wings

Just like you, I was small
Not that long ago at all
I wish you all the happiness
That God gives freely if you ask

Costumes...what a dilemma

2010-10-14T12:12:00.000-06:00

I sort of had a dilemma this year over what costumes the kiddos were going to be for Halloween. If you remember...last year I made both of their costumes. Sammy was a cowboy,

and Miss Mags was an owl-y.

Both of these costumes took many hours of work. So, this year I opted for fast easy and might I add CHEAPER costumes. It's amazing how fast projects can add up. This year I found Sam's whole costume for $12.00 and Maggie's for $8.00. We have our first party on Friday, so I will take pictures of them all decked out and post them after that. Isn't the suspense of what they are going to be killing you???

Hooray for Miss and the Blur

2010-10-08T04:43:00.002-06:00

It's so funny, it seems like from the time my kids start to walk until they hit the magical 18 months, they are such a handful. They want to be independant, but for obvious reasons they are more dependant on us to keep them safe from themselves than ever before! But Miss Maggie has crossed over onto the fun side! This little fart has gotten so big all of a sudden. She is communicating more than ever, and copies pretty much everything her brother does...unless of course she disagrees with him! The big news is that she has officially gone pee on the toilet. She has loved to sit on it for a couple of months now, and before every bath she'd ask to be sat there. For a while now she has come and told us, "pee, pee." and point down to her diaper when she is wet. And now she runs to me and says pee pee. So yesterday was the big day and as she was sitting there she started to pee and got the most surprised look on her face from the tinkling sound. It was so funny and Sam and I started to laugh and cheer and then she just exploded and started laughing so hard. I love seeing that "proud of myself" look on my kiddos faces when they accomplish something they are excited about. So in honor of her big milestone here are a couple of recent photos of the little firecracker.

"Man, why is the last fruit snack always so hard to get out??? This sucks!"

I love this picture because it shows her sly little dimple that shows up when she smiles.

Sporting her new boots. This girl looooooves shoes. She now brings them to me, or sits and tries to get them on herself. It's actually pretty sad how much pleasure these boots and her little piggies bring me!

Cheesin' it up!

And just because he's so dang handsome, I in threw these pictures of the blur. Yesterday, as we were leaving for Krista's house to pick up my hair dye (pictures to come soon of my most successful at-home hair dyeing fiasco), I was snapping pictures of the kiddos with my old camera (the SLR is still in the shop.) Sam would not hold still and so these are the pictures I was able to get of him.

Before the game started. He's loaded up with cars and ready to go.

He just realized I snapped a non moving picture of him! Ah Crap!!!

The game has begun.

Ha, ha...I win!!!

Very cute pillows

2010-10-07T08:43:00.005-06:00

I was going through my list of blogs last night and found these super cute pillows that I want to make for Halloween. How cute are they?

Here is the tutorial for the pumpkin pillow.

Feeling Frustrated...

2010-10-05T08:50:00.004-06:00

and in need of some advice. I feel like all I do lately is pick up messes, or continuously nag Sam and Maggie to pick up messes. Whether it's breakfast dishes, lunch dishes, cars, trucks, papers, movies, the coninuous mountain of laundry that never ends, etc...there is always something to be picked up. The last 3 days we (Kendall, Sam and I...with a little help from Mags, but she was more undoing things than helping) have been going through the boxes in the garage, which pretty much was full of boxes that needed to be sorted and organized into their places in our house. So that was Saturday. On Sunday we left it a mess. Yesterday was go time. We started with the closets in our bedrooms. Sorted through all the too small clothes, the DI stuff, got the books put up on their shelf, and the shoes all organized. It was actually a very productive weekend because I've been needing to sort this crap for a while, but kept putting it off because unlike my crazy sister Liz, I only occasionally get the organizing itch because it gets undone so quickly. Here is where your advice comes in. We just implemented the rule that Sam can have 10 trucks out at a time and if he wants to switch he has to put some back to help eliminate the constant mess of toys everywhere. Also, we have already sent tons to the DI and had yard sales eliminating toys not played with, and we have two boxes that we rotate toys out of so they stay exciting and seem new. But does anyone have any more ideas as to how to keep my house more organized? Does anyone else feel like this? I feel like I clean all day, get our house spotless, and by the next night it's back to being a disaster...which just so happens to be the times when people pop in unexpectedly...much to my embarrassment. I'm tired of picking up all the time and I want some ideas as to how to make this simpler, because obviously this is only going to get crazier the more kids we have. Or is this just the lot in life for moms...the continuous cleaners. Sam is pretty helpful but I never wanted to be a nagging mom. Maybe I just need to be firmer so if he doesn't do it quickly he gets a time out or something...HELP!!!

Front door make-over, and re-make-over

2010-10-04T10:55:00.003-06:00

What a great weekend! I love conference weekend. We stayed at our own home this year and hung out. We made carmel popcorn, calzone's, a big breakfast, orange julius's and carmel apples. What a party. It was really nice to have a break from the craziness of life and just spend time together. We even got our garage mostly cleaned out so we can almost park in it...hooray!!!

Well, I don't have recent pictures, but I do have our front door make-over. This is the first attempt:

The color ended up being way too salmon-ey, so it was back to store...it really sucked because I didn't start painting it until 9:00 pm on a Saturday, so by the time I finished all the stores were closed. It had to sit like this over Sunday so all our neighbors were probably a little concerned about our color choice.

This is the color we decided on. It's called Royal Garnet by Valspar. I really like it, and am thinking it will look good with all the different decorating reds of the seasons. We also took off the screen door so we've still got to replace the trim and paint that too. Just one more project on the list. What do you think???

Finished Lamp project

2010-09-29T21:29:00.000-06:00

So I posted about this lamp I found at the DI a while ago and never posted the finished product. This is actually one of the pair of ugly brass lamps I found for $5.00 each.

I just spray painted the based a red spray paint added a shade that I had from another lamp, and viola...looks like new. These are going in our bedroom as our nightstand lamps. I am just starting to work on our room, so I will do more posts as I go. The other lamp is very similar, but I found a shade for it on clearance at Target that is brown that I'm going to recover with some cream satin so it matches the other lamp. As soon as I get it done I will post some pics.

And of course since I had the camera out Maggie needed to be right where I was taking pictures, so here are some cute little rag-a-muffin pictures of my miss matched girl.

Before and Afters

2010-09-28T14:53:00.003-06:00

Well, since I have been promising some pictures of our projects for a while, I decided to do an update of where we are today. This was a before of the fireplace in our front room when we bought our house.

Although we haven't actually changed the stone on it yet, painting around it and putting up decorations have made a huge difference.

I don't know if you remember this post I did in July, but this is the owl I painted and then stitched from that picture. I don't think I'm loving the frame yet, so I will have to keep tweaking it. I just did some crackle glaze on it then painted it orange.

This is a leaf picture I made after seeing my sister Laura's super cute Halloween ones she's making for their boutique this Saturday.

This is to show a close up of the leaf garland I made. It was so simple...it's just felt and thread.

This is the beginnings of my family wall. I need some advie on what color to paint the frames. I'm thinking having them all be white...but Kendall thinks that will look too boring. What do you think? I'm going to be putting color pictures in them, so I think white will be a pretty neutral background color.

Before pictures of our cupboards and kitchen.

Drum roll please...dub a dub a dub a...I am pleased to finally present our finished cupboards! Don't they look so much better!!! We still have some work to do in here...Kendall has installed one of the 9 can lights we are putting in, and we've got to demo the sub-floor and install the tile, which we plan to have done by the 24th of October...when the next Thomson FHE will be held at our house! Then we have to add the base board. After that we will pretty much be done with our major projects for a while until we get new appliances.

Sam's party

2010-09-28T14:24:00.001-06:00

Sam was so so so excited for his party this year. He's at such a fun stage right now with being excited about everything. He's especially excited about Halloween decorations...we spent about an hour the other day looking at all the spooky stuff at Target. Anyways, as I mentioned before, our camera's flash is not working, so these pictures are kind of sucky.

The day before his party he was running in the church gym and tripped and smacked his face right on the floor. He had a pretty good fat lip to show for it!

He was so into openening his presents that we couldn't even get him to look up! So excited.

These are the treats we had. The only thing he told me he wanted for his decorations was for them to be blue, so I decided to do blue monster cupcakes.

Since our camera has been down I haven't been able to take pictures of the bike we got him, but as soon as I get it back from the canon store I will snap some.

Date Night

2010-09-25T12:36:00.002-06:00

Kendall and I were so excited for Friday night to come this week. We had made plans with some of the Johnson family to go to the Sundance Full Moon lift rides. First we dropped the kiddos off at Krista's house and then headed over to Mom and Dad Johnson's house to meet up. Sadly, Racheal and Travis couldn't make it because their 3 year old daughter had to be rushed to the hospital with an appendix problem.

We went to Red Robin for dinner then headed up the canyon for our lift ride. It was really fun. When we got there it wasn't too busy so we moved through the lines pretty fast and got on the lift. I was really surprised how many silly teenagers where there and I asked Kendall if he thought we'd have come to this when we were in high school. He said we would have, but we wouldn't have been loud and obnoxious because we'd have been too busy making out...so there you go.

One of my favorite parts of the night was when Mom said something like this: "That was fun, yeah, we even made out a little."

After the lift ride we headed home and drove right past the exit for Krista's house because they were so nice to watch the kids overnight. It was such a fun night and I'm so glad to be married to my best friend that I still love to just sit on a lift for an hour and talk to him....it doesn't hurt that he's still a babe too!!!

It's Official

2010-09-23T18:40:00.002-06:00

We are definitely having two boys! I had my 18 weeks ultra sound today and the technician confirmed that there is not a doubt that our kiddos are boys. In fact, they both gave the traditional boy "I am not shy!" pose. It is always such a relief to me to see them moving and kicking and hear those hearts beating. Everything looks awesome too. They are both measuring exactly 17 w 6 days, and weigh 8 oz. We brought Maggie and Sam with us so they could see them up on the big screen and they loved it. Maggie kept saying "baby" over and over, and Sam was pretty fascinated with all the parts. He especially loved hearing the heart beats...which Maggie covered her ears for (it was kind of loud and it scared her every time.)

Happy Birthday Sammy

2010-09-21T09:48:00.002-06:00

I can't believe my boy is 4 years old! It seems like he has been in our family forever...I seriously can hardly remember what life was like without him. Some things about Sam:

About 2 weeks ago this boy tackled riding his bike without training wheels! I was so nervous and excited when he came to Kendall and said he wanted to give it another try. Before this he could go for about 10 yards, then he'd put his feet down. Now he can just keep going, with the occasional crash. So, since he could ride on this 12" bike that was getting way too small for him we decided to get him a new bike for his birthday. I don't have pictures yet because sadly my camera is having some issues that I didn't know about until the day of his party.

This boy loves trucks!!! He is so funny. He's always loved them and I can't even imagine a time when he won't. He plays for hours imagining them going places and crashing and hoarding them from his sister!

Sam is such a daddies boy. He looks up to Kendall so much and I love to watch their bond grow and change as he gets older.

-He is a very sweet and sensitive kid...not in a sissy way because he's actually pretty tough, but he's very tender hearted.

-He loves his sister...most of the time.

-He loves popcorn and pink milk.

-He is taller than most kids his age and it seems like lately I can't keep him in clothes and shoes.

-He likes to play "Pooh kicks" (soccer).

-He especially like to make 4 wheeling mountains with blankets and have us drive over them with him.

-He loves camping and riding in the Bronco and was so sad that we've put it up for sale.

-He amazes me all the time with his questions and insights into things. I love hearing his thoughts and figuring out the way his mind works.

These are just a few things about our Sam, and we are so thankful to have him in our family. I will post the few pictures I have of his birthday party when I get them uploaded.

Wow, 2 posts in one day...

2010-09-17T13:44:00.000-06:00

...I must not have posted in a long time because I have a ton of pictures to post. Including my finished kitchen cupboards and some new artwork. But that will come next week after I have a chance to get it all decorated.

This is a picture of my poor foot about 5 days after my fall. I wish I'd taken one sooner when it was really purple, but oh well.

This is the first hand towel I've made for my kitchen. I'm thinking of doing a tutorial on how to make these because they are pretty easy and I think super cute. The whole set of 4 will have cost me around $6.00.

This last Saturday was a fabulous day. We were very productive. I finished painting the cupboards, and Kendall put up our microwave and cupboard. Yeah!!! Like I said...finished pictures will come next week I promise!

And last, but not least is Monte the Rooster (For those of you who watch Gilmore Girls, do you know which episode I'm refering too?). I purchased Monte from my sister at our yard sale and fell in love immediately.

I especially love him painted a glossy red (I don't really decorate with black much, so I needed to paint him.) I can't wait to put him up on my shelf!

Crazy Days of Summer & a Super Cute New Shop

2010-09-17T07:23:00.003-06:00

A couple of weeks ago we got together with Racheal and Steph to do some swimming. We were going to go to a pool, but ended up in Racheal's backyard with a slip and slide and a pool. The kiddos had a blast, and we will definitely be getting a slip n' slide next year.

Oh my goodness, I love this cute little butt!!! Maggie is a very handsy baby. She talks a ton with her hands, and I love that this picture captured her waving her hands in excitement when Sam was doing the slip n' slide.

Most of the time she would walk down the slip n' slide and run her hands through the water, or stop to get a drink. Then there was the occasional slip and her face was so funny. She was surprised every single time that she was getting soaked by cold water, but then would start laughing and do it again. We were laughing so hard!

Loving that determination!!!

Sam was really getting the hang of sliding. By the end of the day he was a pro.

Also, here is a new Etsy shop I found that is super cute!!! I am loving it. You should definitely check it out! Seriously, how cute are these headbands???

Oh snap...I did it again!

2010-09-08T08:12:00.003-06:00

Ha ha ha...my title is still making me laugh...I'm such a dork! Anyways, for those of you who didn't hear this story through the grapevine I thought I'd tell it here. Yesterday I woke up ready to conquer all of my unfinished projects. I got out my sewing machine to finish my curtains in my kitchen and to finish my Thanksgiving countdown. I even had my machine threaded and ready to go. My bright idea was that I was going to give a coat of paint on cupboard doors in between sewing. So I gathered up two doors, the gallon of half full paint, and a paint brush and headed out the back door to paint. As I hit the pavement somehow my foot bent in half and I ended up covered from head to toe...including my hair...in paint writhing on the ground. Sam was downstairs watching tv and came running out to see what had happened. He immediately said that I needed a kiss and came down to help me. Then Maggie followed suite. It was very sweet, but sadly did nothing whatsoever for the pain.

Some of you will recall that something very similar happened when I was just barely prego with Sam. I fell down our cement stairs of our apartment and fractured my left foot. Kendall was sleeping and I woke him up with my screams.

Anyways, I managed to crawl back into the house to get in the bathtub to wash the paint off and then into bed. After a while I decided I probably better go to the clinic to see if I broke it because I couldn't put any pressure on it without crying. So my mom and Tommy (who was on lunch) came and rescued us. Just before they got there I asked Sam to grab my flip flops that were out by the paint and as he was grabbing them Maggie followed him out the door and immediately they had a little party in the paint. So when our rescuers got there the two kiddos were covered in paint. Lovely.

To make a long story short the doctor declared that my foot is not broken...yeah!!!...but that I need to wear a boot and keep it as immobile as possible. I don't know if I don't remember how painful it was last time or if it's because it's more in my ankle this time, but holy crap this hurts!

The thing that makes me the most mad though is that I lost a half gallon of paint so now I have to replace the stupid $30.00 can!!! Oh well, at least my ankle isn't busted right?

M.I.A

2010-09-06T23:40:00.002-06:00

I know, I know...I suck at blogging! Our lives aren't even that interesting, so I can't say that is why I suck. We have just been busy. I have decided to do a little post about things I am loving and finding inspiration from right now. Maybe some of you will like them too.

First off, this is my new favorite blog. She has beautiful pictures and adorable kids...not to mention great ideas. Love it!

I love this ladies wreaths. They are so quirky, but I want one really bad! Especially this one.

Loving this photo over at Rachel's blog. Totally makes me want to clean out our closets and get them organized!

I'm totally loving these little beauties over here. I want to make one so bad!

Loving these two styles of skirts. Can't wait to make Maggie's 2 new skirts that I have the fabric for.

Well, these are just a few of my favorites right now. I promise to post soon with pictures and projects!

Update

2010-08-26T17:59:00.001-06:00

You guys I have so much stuff I need to update on here. Stuff about our house, finished projects, and pictures. But today all you get is some possible outfits we may be bringing our babies home in.
Baby #1 Outfit:

and Baby #2 Outfit:

You guessed it! I had my 14 week checkup today and since we are having twins I will get an ultrasound at every appointment...yeah for seeing the kiddos more...crappy for our bill. But anywho, the technitian said she was pretty certain we are having two boys. Kendall was so excited and when we told Sam he just said "I know." Everything looked awesome; they are measuring exactly the same, they have healthy little heart beats, and they have been moving around a ton.

Don't wanna

2010-08-17T00:41:00.002-06:00

You guys I need some major motivation!!! I seriously don't want to finish my cupboards!!! I made a promise to myself that I couldn't start working on any other projects...even decorating my house...until I had them all done, including hardware and touch-ups. Now with my never ending lack of energy and my all consuming time suckers...i.e. my crazy kiddos...I am completely not caring that nothing is finished in my house. Okay, it's not that bad, I have more than half of the work done. Actually I usually have a conversation with myself that goes something like this:

As I'm walking through the kitchen to go downstairs I'm thinking: "Man I sure can't wait till my kitchen is done.
The crazy voice in my head: "Maybe Kendall will do it for you."
Erin says: "Yeah, but I won't let him...remember, he's offered."
The crazy voice: "Oh yeah, it really sucks that you are so crazy and can't let anyone help you do things because they have be done in such a stupidly specific way!!!"
Erin says: "Yeah, but these babies are starting to grow and if I don't hurry I won't even be able to bend over enough to sand and paint the stupid cupboards, so I better get cracking on finishing the stupid kitchen this week!"
The rational voice: "Since Sam will be gone...sniff, sniff...the rest of the week we can get it done while Maggie is sleeping."
Erin says: "Yeah, that sounds good, and maybe I will let Kendall do the sanding!"

See look...I am so good at compromising. Even if it is with the crazy voice inside my head!!!

How twins are made

2010-08-14T17:39:00.003-06:00

How twins are made...I thought this was funny.

So this is how they do it...

One of life's great mysteries solved. (Only twenty years ago, no one would have understood this joke!)

Adorable

2010-08-12T12:16:00.002-06:00

Wow, as I was scrolling through my blog list today I found this beautiful quilt over at Ucreate and she gives you a step by step tutorial on how to make it! I can't wait to find our what these kiddos are so I can start making them tons of cute stuff...in the middle of our big ginormous remodel mess. Hey, you need to shake things up a little bit right???

Where we're at today

2010-08-05T08:15:00.001-06:00

Wow, three posts in only 10 hours! Our computer was down for a couple of days and now it's working, plus, we got fast Internet so now I don't dread uploading pictures...which means more posts for everyone...ha ha ha...to enjoy.

Anyhoo, these pictures are of our house just 10 days ago. So far we'd textured the ceilings, and gotten them all painted a beautiful semi gloss bright white.

Gotten some of the hideous green trim painted.

and done nothing to our cupboards.

This is what our house looked like last week. Painted walls (Warm Buff from Valspar paint), but still a major mess.

Half of the cupboards prepped for paint... color choice coming in the next post.

Partially tiled halway

Mostly finished entry way. I got our tile at killer price from Arizona Tile. They were having a blowout sale and I found this 18x18 porceline tile for $1.00 a square foot. Bye bye blue 70's carpet, hello pretty pretty tile.

Nearly gone green!

Well, that is where we were at. We have some finishing touches still, but I will post some pictures of where we are at now tomorrow. Plus a transformation of this pretty ugly lamp that cost a total of less than $8.00.

Just sitting around...

2010-08-04T23:34:00.001-06:00

...waiting for their mother to be ready to go to the store today. Sam and Mags were playing in the front room today and the light was great, and they were actually dressed decently...our daily routine is get up, eat, stay in whatever we managed to get on the night before all day and work our little fingers off....so I decided we needed some pictures.

Miss Maggie's piggy tails. At first...when she didn't really have enough hair...when I did them she didn't like it, but now that her hair is a little longer she seems to like them. (Which just means, less pulling them out!)

You can still see the tail end of her crashed up nose. Last week her whole nose was scabbed over from tripping on the sidewalk.

As I was sorting through boxes, getting ready for my yard sale on Saturday, I found these shoes from one of my sisters. They just happened to be size 5, and Maggie was thrilled. She freaked out when I went to take them off for her nap, so she ended up having to sleep with them on...much to her enjoyment!

My handsome man. He looks so grown up in these pictures! Sam has been wanting very little to do with the camera lately so I was excited to get some natural looking good shots.

Waving "Hi." I love when she says that to strangers with her little wave. So cute!

24th parade

2010-08-04T23:24:00.001-06:00

Our ward had a delayed 24th parade last weekend that was really fun. They wove in and out of the neighborhood and everyone sat out in their front yards to cheer the kids on.

Kendall and the kiddos were at the tail end of the lineup but they waved with the best of them!

Eating some hard earned licorice after a hot ride in the wagon.

I love this picture of this little stinker! Unless you have been around Miss Maggie you may mistake those gorgeous eyes as just being sweet, but she definitely has some sass mixed in as well!!!

A little clarification

2010-07-28T17:54:00.001-06:00

I went in for my doctors appointment today and decided I needed to do a little clarification to a previous post. I had said that our family of 4 was increasing to a family of 5, but my doctor informed me today that we will officially be a family of 6!!! Yes, it's true...we are having twins! Seriously, when he showed me the ultrasound I thought he was kidding...you can never tell what they are showing you. but then he showed me the two beautiful little heart beats and then I started to cry! That is always my favorite part...when you get to hear the heart beat for the first time, only this time we are blessed to hear two strong and healthy hearts! So yes, we are still adjusting to the idea of two babies, and yes I am still in shock; but ultimately we are incredibly excited and recognize how extremely blessed we are. I was so surprised because Kendall is super excited. He has wanted twins since we were prego with Sam, so he took the news way better than I thought he would. Anyways, sorry this post is a little bit rambly, but that's kind of the way my mind is feeling today! Sam says it's going to be two boys for sure and was super excited that he has better odds now of getting a brother, but I think there's at least one girl in there. Any guesses???

Laura (my sister) called to inform me, very rudely might I add, that this is my own fault because I posted this picture and now that's what I'm going to look like!

Thanks

2010-07-20T16:39:00.001-06:00

Thanks everyone for all the well wishes! I really appreciate it. I was looking for a picture of being prego and feeling fat, and this is one of the pics I found! I think it's hilarious at this point, but seriously, I am already feeling so pregnant! It's crazy because I'm only 9 weeks along, but my jeans are feeling tight on my gut and I'm almost ready to break out the maternity clothes! Is this normal for a third baby? I know I felt prego way faster with Mags than I did with Sam...but this early???

Anywho...for those of you who were wondering, I feel great! I have the fairly unusual blessing to not feel at all sick or anything while I'm prego, so other than being tired and feeling fat I'm doing great. We will know more about little bits next week at my doctors appointment.

Just the 5 of us

2010-07-16T13:07:00.002-06:00

Sam came back from primary with this paper on Sunday. I thought, "Oh great, he's spilled the beans." But after hearing what he'd told his primary teachers I wasn't too concerned. Apparently he'd originally put a pink girl on to represent Maggie, but then took it off and put three boys on to represent Spencer,

Justin and Travis...his three cousins who are his buds.

If you didn't catch the subtle hint above, yes...we are expecting baby number 3. We were going to wait until I was at least 10 weeks along to make the announcement, but decided the risk was pretty high of our news getting out with a 3 year old around. I am 8 weeks along and I have my first doctors appointment on the 28th.

This was a total surprise baby...we were planning on starting to try in the winter once we'd gotten settled into our house, but apparently Heavenly Father has a different plan for our growing little family, and we are surprised but very excited that this little one will be joining us! Any guesses as to whether it's a boy or girl?

Pooped

2010-07-15T08:20:00.000-06:00

Holy cow I am so tired today. I haven't been this tired since we were working on our condo in Parowan. I was 5 months prego and we were scraping cottage cheese ceilings off of 25 foot ceilings! And although, this house has neither of those I feel just as tired. What do you think that means? Does being 26 instead of 22 make that big of a difference??? In the last two nights we have finished two coats of paint on the kitchen and bathroom ceilings...this is what I was doing, hence the soreness. Reaching over my head for two nights straight is killing my back and arms. Kendall textured the two bedroom ceilings, the hallway, and half of the front room. We got a first coat of paint on the horrible green trim in the kitchen and we got all the holes filled so we can start painting the walls. Which just so happens to be my favorite part because it makes the biggest change...although painting the pink kitchen ceiling and the blue bathroom ceilings were pretty huge changes. I will take some pictures today when we go over and post them tommorrow.

Hooray

2010-07-13T15:14:00.001-06:00

We have officially closed on our house today! It's recorded and done! I am so ecstatic I can hardly believe it's finally here!

Oh where, Oh where...has my ambition gone?

2010-07-07T08:15:00.002-06:00

I'm afraid it pretty much went down the crapper with our computer! The other day I went to turn on our computer and there was a reading that said it couldn't find any info. So...my brother in law Travis came to our rescue and has been fixing it. But in the meantime I don't have anywhere to upload photos to because my mothers computer doesn't work with my camera. Bummer. Oh well... I thought I would post some pictures of things that I want to make or have been inspired by, and then when I get our computer going and pictures uploaded I will show you some of the things I've made from this inspiration.

My first ever garden and yard is surprisingly super exciting to me. I've never ever had a green thumb and I can't stop thinking about how I'm going to plant and arange our flower beds!

Hooray for FHA

2010-07-02T10:02:00.000-06:00

We just found out that the home we are purchasing is going to be able to go FHA!!! Normally I wouldn't get that excited over this, but the "supposed" good deal we were getting with our previous lender ended up having some surprise fees that we weren't prepared for. So anywho...we should close within the next two weeks! I'm super excited and kind of nervous at the same time. It's been a while since we had a house payment, but I'm also very excited to start getting some sleep. I have been up most nights, pretty much since we put in an offer, with ideas racing through my mind. Even though I have most things situated the way I want on paper, colors picked, and project builds in mind...I still can't wait to get started!

Super cute Flower shirt

2010-06-16T09:53:00.000-06:00

I'm sure if you are like me and you love all the crafty flowers you have noticed the super cute flower shirts that everyone has been wearing/making. So I finally decided to make one on a shirt that Maggie had. It was very easy; a little time consuming, but easy. I just cut four circles out of each fabric I used. Then I folded it into a pie shape (folded 4 times.) Then I cut a heart shape on the outer edge. Viola...sewn all together they look like flowers. I hand stitched these on because I didn't want to have to pin them all on and bother with my sewing machine, but I'm sure you could definitely use a machine. I had to throw the second picture in because she is playing peek-a-boo and is just so dang cute!

I was up at Liz's house when I made the shirt and this is what our crazy boys were doing the whole time! Wrestling and fitting into boxes!

House Update

2010-06-14T21:24:00.002-06:00

I thought I would give a little update on the whole house buying process. We are working out some of the kinks with the bank (it's Fannie Mae owned). We knew the house had a water leaking problem down in the basement, but we thought it had already been solved when they put rain gutters and a down spout on the house. But after the inspection we found out that the upstairs bathroom has some plumbing problems. So we are waiting for them to fix that. Then the pilot light wouldn't stay lit on the furnace, so we aren't sure if the furnace is bad or if sitting vacant for a year tooks it toll. So they are going to be having someone come and take a look at that too. We just had to extend our due diligence deadline till Friday so they can resolve those issues. Keep your fingers crossed for us that they can fix these problems and that we aren't going to get screwed!!!

I have a secret to tell

2010-05-30T15:35:00.002-06:00

Well, we did it!!! We put an offer on the perfect home, and are officially under contract! It has a great layout, but definitely needs some love and updating...which is exactly what we intend to give it! We close on or before the 14th of July. Yeah!!! So you will definitely be hearing a lot about remodeling and decorating ideas. We will be getting the inspection done this week, and if everything goes well with that we will plow ahead with the purchasing process. Wish us luck!!!

BTW....don't you just love the 70's blue carpet??? I fell in love with the huge washroom/craftroom it has downstairs, and Kendall loves that it has a garage and a shed out back that already has power to it...but of course he'll "have" to re-wire it...wink wink! I can't wait to paint these cupboards. Any ideas for colors??? I am kind of leaning towards green. I painted the cupboards in our condo red, but I'm thinking I want to lighten it up in this house. We'll see how it works. We are definitely going to have our hands full with lots of projects for a while, and I can hardly sleep with all the ideas racing around in my head. I can't wait to get my hands on this house!

A few of my favorite...

2010-05-18T06:33:00.000-06:00

...shots! With the few uninterrupted moments I've had this week I have been tailing my kiddos to mess with the settings and learn how to use my camera. I have never ever taken a photography class, so these are probably not that great in comparison to many of you, but for me they are exciting and fun. I love the continuous shooting feature because I am now able to get 50 shots that I would have missed with my old point and shoot camera!

Sam and Mags playing trucks! Love the wind blown hair look Maggie is sporting!

Miss Mags reading my camera manual...aka...stealing it, running as fast as she can, then plopping down to read it!

My handsome Sam!

He's been being pretty cooperative to having thousands of pictures taken.

Last night we ate at Ihop and Maggie was covered in mac and cheese. Why is it always so cute when they are covered in food?

I'm afraid I've passed this trait on to my child. I have always made this squinty face, and my family called it "endearingly" the condor nose. Tell me if you would think that was a nice term or not...but seeing it on my kiddos does make me rethink whether or not my family thought it was a cute face.

So determined to get every last noodle in there!

Sam sporting my nephew Ethan's hat. He recently has fallen in love with hats because:

a) Kendall wears a backward hat almost all of the time.

b) Darby from my friends tigger and pooh "slaps her cap." This is his favorite show at the moments. Yesterday while at the store he asked if we could find him a cap to slap.

Happy Day to me!!!

2010-05-10T14:27:00.001-06:00

This week was a week of firsts! First off, I got to pick out a brand spanking new Cannon Rebel XSi camera! Holy cow...I am seriously in love with this camera. I have just started playing around with all of the awesome settings, and I can't believe how long I survived with such a crappy camera for so long! A humongous thanks to Kendall for the best Mother's Day present ever!!!

My second first is this...yesterday at church Sam sang with the primary for the very first time. It was so cute. He was all excited to go up with all the kids, then, when he got up there, he waved to me like an old pro. I seriously felt like the most special mom ever.

Some of the things that weren't firsts this week: Breakfast in bed, Kendall and the kids tip toeing about so I can have a leisurely sleep in Saturday {still one of the best parts of Mother's Day!}, hugs and kisses from my kiddos...new pictures to be posted soon! What a great mother's day!

Feeling blue!

2010-05-03T23:55:00.001-06:00

Man, I sure have been feeling on the outs (refering to anything remotely scrap booky, bloggy, or even sewy!!!) I need some inspiration! Can anyone help me????

What a party!

2010-04-09T09:03:00.006-06:00

Our Easter weekend was kind of a crazy blur of fun-ness! It started Saturday morning with a city egg hunt...where there weren't even eggs...just candy thrown out on the ground, sucky! After picking up about 10 pieces of candy Sam said, "that's enough." Not as big of a hit as I'd hoped, oh well, maybe next year. Then after the Priesthood session that night we went to sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's house. We played games all night, and laughed really hard. After a big breakfast we watched more conference and at 3:00 we headed up to Wendy's house for the Thomson family FHE/party. I love that we have an egg hunt every year, and that my kids are getting big enough to love it! Sam could hardly wait when he saw some of the eggs the bigger kids had hidden.

Maggie was having quite the little party! Sadly I have no pictures of Sam finding eggs because he was "The Blur!" He found his eggs and was off to play with the kids way too fast for a mom wanting to take cute pictures!These are all of the kids, minus Ben {whose serving a mission in Georgia} and Maddie and Kyle {They were at their other Granparents this year

This is Spencer! Any time we are together, Sam is his little shadow...and when we aren't together {sadly, they live kind of far} he is constantly asking about him.

Luckily Spencer {aka Jeanette and Brad} live in the country, so we can get these super cute pictures with some baby chicks. Sam was mildly interested...he stopped jumping on the tramp for about five minutes so we could snap a couple of pictures...and Maggie was curious.

All in all, we had a great Easter weekend...now we just need another weekend to recoup!

Temple Square

2010-04-08T15:17:00.001-06:00

The other day Steph {my sister in-law}, her kiddos Jaquie & Emily, me and Sam & Maggie loaded into her awesome Jeep and drove downtown. Although, I didn't get very good pictures of the kidlets the flowers against the temple were starting to get really pretty. I can't wait until the trees start blossoming too!

This is my favorite shot of Sam. The sun was so bright that he couldn't even open his eyes!

Dad

2010-04-06T09:01:00.004-06:00

My Dad's 65th birthday is coming up and my sister Laura has asked all of us to write down some of our favorite memories with him. I've been working on this list for a while and been having some pretty good laughs over some of his crazy antics...he used to hide out patiently so he could scare me any chance he got. His favorite seemed to be when I would get home at 11:00 pm from school at the U and he'd be hiding behind the locker in the garage; just waiting for me to walk around to where he was. Then he'd just say something and I would seriously jump out of my skin! It got to the point where I'd have to come up with ways to get into the house without walking by anything he could be lurking behind!

But I think that my favorite thing/memory about my dad is that even though he isn't himself anymore there are still some fundmental parts of him that I don't think will ever leave. Anytime there is something spiritual going on he tries to bear his testimony, and he can still muster out a prayer. I love that about him and I think that it shows how much his testimony is a part of him. The first picture is from 1999, the second is from 2005 at my wedding. These others are just a few of Sam and Grandpa together from this last year. The first one is Sam helping him put on his shoes, and the second is the two of them playing trucks.

Great deal!

2010-04-01T16:11:00.001-06:00

I have been wanting to get some new bedding for our room for the last little while, and I had my eye on this Target bedding But today, after searching in 3 stores, online, and calling all stores in the valley and still not being able to purchase it I decided I'd just have to wait to find something I like.

Then, as we were walking out of the Bedding section my eye was drawn to a folded up quilt. And this is what I found!!! I was so excited because it was an online purchase that had been returned, so it was marked down to $80.00. Then I had a 20% off any bedding purchase...SCORE!!! So it made our new comforter and shams a total of $64.00 {This may sound expensive to some of you, but if you've ever looked at quilted blankets you will know how expensive they can be!} I am totally stoked, and Kendall just got home from work and likes it too. Which, since he does sleep in this bed I guess it was important for him to like the quilt too...right.

Stats

2010-03-29T20:54:00.003-06:00

What a fun birthday!!! This girl is so much fun. On the 19th we threw a little party for Miss Mags. We had a great time enjoying Maggie with some of our family. I made these cupcakes for her big day, and I am just loving these chocolate treats on top. So easy and very cute to add to any treat.

At Maggie's 1 year doctor appointment her stats were:

Height: 30" {75%}

Weight: 21 lb. 8oz. {50%}

Head: {75%}

She is growing like a weed. I think that since she started walking/cruising {at exactly 11 months} she has really started to slim down.