Christmas Week Part 1...

Wow it has been an exhausting, exciting, and entertaining week! I decided to do my post in two parts, one with my family and one with Morrills. We spent the first few days at my little sister Lindsay's new house in Provo. She was a great hostess and the boys loved it (the fact that she had about 5 candy dishes out didn't hurt). It was so good to be with my sis, I love her so much and it is SO SO SO hard to be this far away from her, especially considering how much she loves my boys and how much they love her.



Here they are in Jack's bed on the couch, yes it's pink...Tycee was trying to open Uncle Jason's present...Smiley guy...Jack was in no mood for a pic, but cute of everyone else...Auntie Lindsay making Tyce laugh...Thanks for letting us stay Linds and Jason, I know your house was loud and messy but I hope you enjoyed the kids. =) LOVE YOU BOTH!



Tuesday and Wednesday I spent with friends since Lindsay had to work all day. Tuesday I went to Justina's house and the boys played with Aiden for five straight hours and had SOOO much fun! I forgot my camera but hopefully Justina will email me the cute ones she took. The twins adore Aiden and watching them play made me sad because they live so far away from eachother. Plus, I love Justina and we get along great and had so much fun talking all day. Thanks for having us over!



Wednesday I went over to my friend Melissa's house and the boys played with her precious girls. They had fun too and it was fun to see prego Mal! =)



Tyce loved Paisley's princess chair... Wednesday night I picked up Parker from the airport and headed out to Morrills, more on that in the next post. =)



Sunday Christine drove us out to Provo so we could spend a couple hours with my family before we headed to the airport. My mom and Lindsay made a yummy lunch for everyone and it was so nice to all be together, even though it was only for a few hours.



Dana and Jason...Gosh I have missed my Abbi Lynn, isn't she beautiful? The cousins had fun playing together, throwing stuff down the stairs for Abbi to catch...Abbi loved Tyce and was little miss mommy to him...Livi and Jackson always get along so well...Grandpa and Mason, he's the happiest little kid alive...

We wanted to leave Lindsay's house by 2pm to get to the aiport for our flight but Livi, Jackson, and Josh accidently bumped Lindsay's glass table thing and it shattered all over her tile floor. Needless to say, it was a huge mess that a while to clean up. I felt so bad, but Lindsay handled it very well and I think she'll forgive us! =( Anyways, we hurry hurry hurry to the airport, say hi to my grandparents for a few minutes because they wanted to see Parker, then hurry to our gate...only to find out our plane is delayed because they "didn't have a flight crew booked" so we had to wait almost two hours until they could find one. Luckily my parents were with us because they were flying home to Oregon so we hung out, which was really nice. The crappy part was getting in so late. We landed at about 12:45am! The boys were pretty good on the plane, Jack slept for 2.5 hours so when we landed he was a happy helper which was nice because Tyce and Josh were out like lights so we had to carry them everywhere, along with our 5 suitcases, 3 car seats, 2 DVD players, 2 diaper bags, and a huge fire station box. Anyways, we got home about 2:15am and got to bed about 3am. Needless to say, we're exhausted!

But it was SO worth it! I love my family and really needed this time with them!

Stay tuned for part 2! =)

Christmas Cookie Fun...

For our Family Home Evening activity last night we made and frosted Christmas sugar cookies! The boys have been looking forward to this for so long, they were so excited. It was my first time making sugar cookies from scratch and they turned out pretty good! The boys loved using the cookie cutters and picking out which shapes to do. I also made homemade frosting and then we used food coloring to make it pretty colors. It was a yummy and messy evening!

The finished product...They picked their favorite ones to eat...Josh was much more of a perfectionist and quite coordinated about his frosting...Jack was just concerned about which one he was going to eat, haha...

It was a fun family night. We taught the boys that they are children of God and they seemed to understand it somewhat. They have such sweet spirits and there's nothing like having that in your home. I love my boys!

P.S. Where was Tyce? He was upstairs in his crib resting up so he could keep mommy up all night. =(

Tyce is 4 Months!

Tyce had his 4 month appointment yesterday and all went well. He was SO cute laying on the scale just smiling at all the nurses. The doctor was amazed at how happy and cooperative he was with the exam! He didn't like his shots, of course, but only cried for about 1o seconds and then went back to smiling and talking, haha. I love him!

So apparently he's huge now! He was 16.5 pounds, which is in the 75%! He was 27 inches long, which is in the 95%! His head was in the 50%! I can't believe he's so big! I'm actually kinda sad about it, cuz he's my baby! I'm glad he's tall though, like his daddy. =) They were also amazed at how strong he was for his age. I was so proud of my Tycee!

Early Christmas...

My parents brought the twins' Christmas presents with them when they came for Thanksgiving. Since then they've been sitting underneath the tree. The boys have been surprisingly patient waiting to open them. In fact they've had LOADS of fun just playing with the wrapped boxes, haha. Anyways, we didn't want to lug the presents to and from Utah so we let them open them on Saturday. They were SO excited! They got lots of trains and cool tracks! Thank you mom and dad, I have trains ALL over my house! =)

Here's Joshy showing off two of his trains... Here's Jackson's trains...

Don't be deceived, this is only PART of it all...there's a whole nother set of tracks and a TON more trains but "they were sleeping and don't want to take a picture." Hahaha, of course.

Why is Jack all dressed and Josh is still in his jammies? Well every morning Josh carries Tyce's formula downstairs and Jack carries the bottle downstairs (I keep it up there for night feedings). This morning Jack had his hands full of trains (of course) so he thought it'd be smart to put it down inside his jammies to carry it downstairs. Well, I guess he forgot about it and went off playing. Later he came in bawling because it had spilled all over inside his jammies and he was all wet with formula. Hahahaha, it was hilarious.

Well I'm off to Tyce's 4 month appointment! Update to come!

Best Friends...

This morning Jackson asked if he could hold Tyce on his lap. I set him all up with pillows and stuff and then went into the other room for a second and this is what I overhear Jackson say...

"Tycee, I am your bestest friend and I love you so much!"

It melted my heart. It still amazes me how much Jackson and Josh love and adore Tyce. It surprises me they don't resent him because I have so much less time for them than I used to. I think them being twins and having never had me to theirselves anyway has probably helped. Whatever the reason, I am so grateful they all love eachother so much. Tyce's little face just lights up when his brothers talk to him. I am so blessed to have three little angels that all get along so well!

Why Is Bedtime So Difficult?

Those of you that have kids that just, GO TO BED, are so incredibly lucky! I love Jack and Josh and would say they're pretty well behaved easy kids...EXCEPT bedtime. For some reason, no matter how tired they are, they always get a second wind when it's bedtime. It doesn't help that they share a room and get eachother all riled up. Anyways, last night about 1.5 hours after we put them down, we heard them upstairs playing. Parker and I were so annoyed, we had been up there 100 times telling them to go to bed. So we ran upstairs ready to just blow up at them and we walk into their room and see this...
It doesn't look as funny in the pictures but Jackson had all his toys shoved inside his jammies. He looked hilarious but the funniest part was he had a police car in there that was going off so everytime he moved a siren went on from inside him, hahaha. It was seriously hilarious. Parker and I laughed so hard, took pictures, then tried to scold them-haha. Ah the joys of parenthood!

Fun/Nasty Gross Night...

Sunday night we had our friends/neighbors, the Kereys, come over for dinner and games. It was so much fun to have them over and the boys loved it as well. Jadeh sure loves to spoil Tyce, she holds him 24/7 and he just LOVES it!

Here they all are...

Why then was it a nasty/gross night? Well after they left we put the boys down for bed and I was on the phone with my mom and Parker was watching football. I went upstairs to check on the twins after I got off the phone and they both had something soaking wet wrapped in soaking wet bath towels on their beds. I asked them what they were doing..."We thought it would be funny to dunk all our stuffed animals and dinosaurs in the toilet." AH I was so mad! I had about an inch of toilet water on the bathroom floor and dripping wet animals everywhere. So I took away everything and told them I was throwing them all away in the big garbage for the garbage man to take away. In reality I threw them all in the washing machine, but I wanted them to panic. Jackson couldn't have cared less and just fell asleep but poor Joshy was DEVASTATED over not having his dinosaurs. He cried the saddest most desperate cry I've ever heard. I wanted to give in so bad but I had to be strong, they need to learn to NOT PLAY IN THE TOILET! Seriously, aren't they too old for that? Or is that just boys? Ew. In the morning the first thing Josh asked for were his dinosaurs. I gave them to him and said, "so was it funny to play in the toilet Josh?" He goes, "yes, we had SO much fun mommy!" Ah, I guess they'll never learn...

Rolling Rolling Rolling

Tyce rolled over today! He had already gone front to back but he had never gone back to front before! He was so proud and so cute. BUT, I missed it! Yes me, who is with him pretty much 24/7. The ONLY time we're apart is when I go to the gym every day, and of course that's when he chooses to roll. Oh well, it's still exciting. But now I have to watch him so carefully! I don't want another broken leg incident like poor Jackson! Here's the cute little roller...
I love how he cuddles his burp rag just like Jack and Josh did...
He's 4 months old now and is getting some chunk on him! Yay! He is still the happiest baby alive during the day. Pretty much any time you smile or talk to him he will give you a huge smile back and laugh or talk. He's very easy to please and entertains himself well. Nights are still tough. He is up a LOT and doesn't always want to go back to sleep after he eats, he'd rather smile and play. Punk! Haha. We love him so much though and he brings SUCH joy into our home, our lives, and our hearts. Love you Tycee!!!

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree

Last night we got all our Christmas decorations up and decorated our tree. The boys have been SO excited to do this and Parker and I were both having rough days with some drama and what not but we finally got around to it after dinner and it turned out great. We let the boys decorate it so it certainly doesn't look perfect but I don't care. It's always fun to pull out our ornaments that bring back memories. My mother in law gives us an ornament each year that represents something that happened that year, it was fun to see all those. It got me excited for the Christmas season! We are trying to teach the boys about the birth of Christ and I think they are slowly getting it. Yesterday Jackson found a little Santa statue and put it by Mary in the nativity set. I asked him why and he said, "Santa ALWAYS likes to see Heavenly Father mommy." Haha, close enough I guess. =) And can I say how much I LOVE Christmas music!?!? I love this time of year!

Here's Jackson hanging a christmas ball ornament, which by the way was dropped about ten times and never broke! The one Josh dropped DID break and, of course, Jackson stepped in the glass =(

Little poser...Cheeseball...
Tyce was pretty good but got fussy at the end of the decorating...In front of the finished product...They love their stockings, I gotta find one for Tyce though!!!Haha, it's a beauty isn't it?

Thanksgiving Week...

We had a wonderful week with my parents. They flew in on Sunday and went home this afternoon. It was, of course, not long enough-but I'll take what I can get. I feel so blessed that my parents are both ABLE and WILLING to come see us so often. I love them so much!!!

Cute pic of daddy and Tyce...Grandma and Tyce, Tyce really knew Grandma and would smile at her all the time...Grandpa reading Ernie's Big Mess to Jack, I LOVED that book growing up! My dad also does great Sesame Street character voices so he's always fun to have read to you. =)Grandma and Joshy, Josh really warmed up to my mom this trip-giving her lots of kisses...
Tuesday Parker took a half day and we all went to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum. It's like a continuation of the one down at the mall in DC but this one was really close to my house so that was nice. My dad is kinda a nerd about this kind of stuff so he loved it and wanted to spend MUCH more time there but, of course, the boys had other ideas. Haha, sorry dad!Here we are in that big tower thing at the top of the building. It's really close to Dulles Airport so you can watch planes take off and land, which the boys thought was pretty cool. Tyceroo was an angel, as always!Grandpa and Joshy outside the museum...Grandma and Jackson...Wednesday night our WONDERFUL friends/neighbors Shana, Jadeh, and Alexi babysat the boys for us so we could go out to eat as adults! Oh it was so...quiet!!! It was nice to be able to have some time with my parents away from the kids. Thursday my mom made us an AMAZING YUMMY INCREDIBLE DELICIOUS PERFECT Thanksgiving dinner. My mom is such a good cook, I've been so spoiled. Her gravy was to die for, I think I just wanted a bowl of that! Haha. She also made her famous banana cream pie, which made my little sister and her husband jealous! =)

Here is my honey carving the bird for the first time...He was snacking on it the whole time, but managed to save some for the rest of us...

Aside from the delicious food we had a nice Thanksgiving. I asked the boys what they were thankful for:

Jackson: "Going potty and Daddy."

Josh: "Mommy."

It was cute. I am thankful for my amazing family, both immediate and extended. I am thankful for Parker's job (as much as I complain about it taking us out here, we are lucky to have a stable job in this economy). I am thankful for my health. I am thankful for the gospel and my knowledge of eternal families. I am thankful that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and watches over me and who is always there for me.

Mom and dad thank you SOOOO much for coming out. We all enjoyed having you and can't wait until February when you come back! LOVE YOU BOTH!!!