Sun in Night

Sydney's life has become a musical lately. I'm suprised how many songs she's learned at pre-school and primary. She tries to sing like Ariel on The Little Mermaid and she makes up songs about whatever she is doing. Today she was singing "Silent Night" for me. She only knows the first line and sings it like this: "Su-un in Night, Su-un in Night." I can imagine these are kind of confusing lyrics to her, but I'm not fixing it because it's so cute. I'm sure she'll learn the right words next year.

Snow day in Oakley

Yesterday we went up to Aunt Jenny's family cabin in Oakley for a day to play in the snow. It's a really fun tradition we do every year. I should have taken a picture of the cabin because it is the coolest cabin I've ever seen. Sydney has been really into playing in the snow this year. Her older cousins are so great to take her on their sleds with them.

Here's a picture of Sydney and her cousin James. James has gotta be the best big brother a kids could have. He even made a point of telling me how much fun he had sledding with her later that day.

Here's a picture of Sydney and her cousin Ally waking back up the hill. And a picture of just Ally because she's so darn photogenic and thought this picture was really cute.

I haven't written anything about my littlest children in quite some time. They did a bit of sleeping during this event. Tanner and Natalie have great party manners. They are always so quiet and well behaved when we go out in public. I suppose they must get pretty bored and tired of being at home so much. If they are not being quiet they are often singing. That's been their thing lately. Natalie's sometimes sounds like a high-pitched garbage disposal, but its still music to my ears. Tanner sings his dada song. It goes like this: "Dadadadadadadadada." We've been working on a mama song, but no luck yet.

Merry Christmas

Well Christmas day was a lot of fun for our family. It started off a little rocky. Natalie got sick Christmas Eve and threw up a few times. She slept well at night with no problems but when I nursed her in the morning she threw up all over her and me. Tanner somehow managed to stay clean through that. So she had a bath, I had a shower, and by the time we were all ready Sydney was up and ready to see what Santa brought her.

Sydney finally understood the Santa thing this year and was very excited. We actually had to go see Santa at the mall twice this year because the first time she was so excited and nervous she forgot what she wanted to ask him for for Christmas. She's really been wanting a big ball with Dora on it. So the first time she saw Santa she only said she wanted "presents". That afternoon all she would talk about was how she forgot to tell Santa about the Dora ball. So the next week we were at the mall again and made another more successful stop to Santa. Anyways, Santa did get her the Dora ball. She was very excited about it.

Josh sent me on a video scavenger hunt that morning for my present. He has been so excited about my present this year and with good reason. He got me a Nikon D40 digital camera! So now I can take some AWESOME pictures! I spent most of Christmas day trying to figure out how to use it. It's going to take me some time to figure out all the features.

After the unveiling of all our gifts Grandma and Grandpa Moore came over to visit. It was so nice of them to drive all the way out to us and Sydney loved showing them all the things she got.

We went out to my parents' home that afternoon. My mom had a special surprise planned for all of us. She gave each family gift bags and made us all wait to open them at the same time. Inside them were marshmallow shooters for each family member and a bag of mini marshmallows. And the war began! It was hilarious. Josh wants to build a snow fort in the front yard and shoot the neighbors that go by.

Sydney also got a box of princess dress-up clothes for Christmas. I think I may have a hard time getting her to wear anything else for a while. Natalie will have a lot of hand-me-downs in practically new condition.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Well we made it! The big number 5. I'm not sure why 5 years seems like such a big deal to me. Especially when you look at people married for 50 years. I guess I just thought this day was SO far away 5 years ago. When you get married and the longest you've dated anyone is about 5 months it's hard to imagine lasting years and years with the same person. But it's been a great half-decade! I'm the luckiest girl in the world to be married to the sweetest, funnest, smartest, most patient guy in the world!

We don't have huge plans for our anniversary. We're going to dinner and a movie. But really it doesn't matter what we do, a night out with just the two of us is fabulous no matter what. Thanks mom and dad for babysitting! Josh got me this beautiful watch and matching bracelet from Brighton Collectibles. I love their stuff! And he's so smart to get a bracelet with the watch so the babies can slobber all over that instead of ruining the watch. Very clever.

I was pretty proud of my gift idea for Josh this year. Since he's so into astronomy lately I found an online store that will print out what the night sky looked like on any given night at any given location. So I gave him a picture of the night sky over Salt Lake City on our wedding night. The sky that night was actually covered in clouds because it was snowing, but had there been no clouds this his what it would have looked like. We noticed this morning that the moon, saturn and jupiter were all lined up which looks pretty cool.

My little copycat

Sydney is growing up a little faster than I like. Yesterday, she was being an especially big copycat of everything I do. After I walked on the treadmill in the morning she got on her "gym shoes" (a.k.a. slippers) and walked for a few minutes and then went to get us both some "gym water" (sippy cups with water). After I put on make-up she also put on make-up and looked like she had a black eye the rest of the day. I tried to wash it off and I wish I'd taken a picture. That girl is going to be a make-up artist for horror films some day.
Later that day I saw her dragging my enormous nursing pillow into the family room with her baby doll. My mom gave her a baby doll a couple years ago for Christmas I think and it's become part of the family. Sydney announces to me, "I'm the best mommy!" A few minutes later she says "All done!" I look over at her and she's got the nursing pillow around her with her baby and her shirt all unbuttoned. She really is the best mommy!
I took all the kids to Sam's Club that afternoon to pick up Christmas cards and groceries. They were all being so good. The twins especially love to go shopping because there is so much to look at. I was taking my time and enjoying the absence of crying. Sydney likes to talk about everything she sees at the store. Then she says, "Okay mommy, you pick ONE more thing and then it's time to go home." Well I was actually all done but the whole way up to the checkout she's reminding me, "ONE more thing mommy, just ONE more and then we're all done." She gave me quite a few good laughs for one day!

First Snow

Well we got our first big snow of the year last weekend! I'm so glad we did not need to leave the house that day. It was an all day thing. Sydney played outside with her friend McCoy while Josh shoveled the driveway in the morning. I painted the bathroom while the babies slept and in the afternoon I went out to play in the snow with Sydney. We started what could have been a very cool snow fort. But Sydney started to get really cold so we had to come in. I guess the boots I bought her are not waterproof. Neither are her gloves. It was fun to get outside and play like a kid again. The best part is coming inside and taking a warm shower and having hot chocolate.

Starry Nights

For Josh's last birthday he got a telescope. He quickly outgrew this telescope and upgraded to what Sydney calls "daddy's HUGE telescope." We had no idea Sydney would be so taken with astronomy. She'll likely be one of the voyagers on the star ship Enterprise someday. She goes out with Josh every night the sky is clear to look for constellations. She tells me about galaxies, nebullas, and star clusters. She has a star chart Josh printed out for her which she has colored and is working on learning a few of the galaxies on it. Most nights they just lay on the lawn and look at their charts. Sometimes they get out the HUGE telescope and look for things. (One of these days I'll snap a picture. The flash will probably blind them.) Sydney is really patient for a 3-year-old. She'll just sit out there in the coldand watch her daddy get everything put together and aligned so she can look through it for a few seconds. The other night she came running in the house from the cold all excited and said, "Mommy, I saw the moon THREE times!!"

I've been TAGGED!

I've been tagged by my dear Aunt Barbs. Here are the rules to the game of tag.

Rules:
A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags other people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. My fingers are "double jointed." Apparently, double jointed is not a real thing. It's just extreme flexibility. I can bend the pinky finger on my left hand backwards so far that the tip of it will touch the back of my hand. This is not as easy to do as it was when I was younger. I remember attracting a lot of attention from it in elementary school.

2. I used to collect alarm clocks. I had 5 or 6 in high school. It's because I would get so used to the alarm on each clock that I would learn to sleep through it. So I would rotate through them. I would sleep for an hour through an alarm going off right next to my head. It would wake up everyone in the house but me. My dad used to come in my room and dump water on my face to wake me up. So I learned to wake up to the sound of my door opening. The alarm would be going off right next to me and I'd be out, but as soon as I heard the slightest squeek from my door I was up!

3. When I was 8 years old I decided I wanted to be a piano teacher when I grew up. At 15 I started teaching and just recently stopped teaching so I could take care of my kids. I don't think a lot of people actually become what they wanted to be when they were 8 years old.

4. I love doing the budget for our family. I will spend hours organizing and tracking all our financial matters and making long and short term saving plans. It's almost an obsession. I think I get this one from my mom. It's not so much that I am obsessed with saving money. I really enjoy spending it, but I like to see where it's all going and where we'll be later.

5. I have a very hard time sleeping alone. Funny because when I first got married I had the hardest time sleeping with someone else in the same bed. Now I have the hardest time sleeping if Josh isn't there. It's a good thing he doesn't travel for work. When he is gone I don't fall asleep until really late and get very few hours.

6. I am very spoiled. I have a husband who treats me like a queen and does everything he possibly can to make me happy. He works hard and provides for our family so I can stay home with our kids. And he is the best dad a kid could want. He gets so excited to do the things Sydney loves to do and turns into a kid himself. It's so fun to watch. I have 3 kids who are just little miracles to me. They are always quick to smile and love any attention they can get from their mommy. I have great parents who taught me everything I know that is good. They are always willing to help with anything they can and are so fun to be around. And I married into a great family who I've had the pleasure of being a part of for almost 5 years now. I think my Heavenly Father forgot to include trials in my life. It doesn't seem quite fair, but I'm not complaining.

I tag Wende, Roseann, and Sara!

We won!

Every year our realtor throws a client appreciation party by renting a movie theater and showing a new movie. He does a drawing and gives out some pretty cool prizes too. Almost everyone wins something. He also does a referral incentive program each year and presents the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners their prizes at the party. This year we won 1st prize -- a vacation! It's actually a travel voucher for a vacation for $2000. So I've been browsing my options and can't decide if we want a cruise or trip to the caribbean somewhere or a cruise to the caribbean or something else...Anyone have any suggestions? Also, any volunteers for babysitting? And if anyone needs a good realtor, use ours. We'd be happy to win again next year!

A witch, a devil, and an angel

Aren't they cute? Everyone likes to ask if I favor Natalie when they see what costumes I picked for the twins. I think they really are appropriate though. Natalie is an angel 99% of the time and Tanner is a handsome little devil. Sydney is not really witch in real life, but she picked her costume this year. We took her to gardner village and got some great shots of her with the witches there. While we were there my mom found this fabulous hat and decided to be a witch this year too. I think she and Sydney were the best dressed witches ever!

Picture Day - Take 2!

Sorry for those of you who are tired of looking at pictures of my kids! However, this is my blog and I can write what I want. I was somewhat irritated with my lack of pictures from kiddie kandids last week. 5 pictures just didn't cut it. I have more frames to fill than that! So I decided to try a few techniques I learned from watching Wende take pictures of our twin a few months ago. I snapped these with my little point and shoot camera in our living room a couple days ago. Yes, they are on a sheet from our bed. I think they turned out pretty good all things considered. I have yet to get a good one of all three of them, but I will not give up!

Picture day

Well they turned out cute in the end but, wow, what an ordeal! I thought some indoor photo shots would be cute to do before they got too much older. I should have learned my lesson by now not to take such small children to a photo studio. It's funny how they'll be so smiley and giggling one second, but the second you put them in front of the photographer and the lights they turn stone-faced or suddenly their feet are incredibly interesting (that was Tanner.) I'm speaking mostly of Tanner and Natalie. Sydney is past that stage and absolutely delighted to pose for a camera. She was the same way as the twins when I took her to get pictures done at their age, though. Anyways, it took a long time, but we eventually got a cute one of each of them so all's well that ends well!

Our TV

Saturday night Josh and I rented Transformers, which we had not seen yet. We were right in the intense fighting seen at the end when there was a huge crash outside, the lights flickered, and our tv went blank. We assume it was lightning but it sounded like a bomb. I think for a tenth of a second I thought maybe the movie had caused it. It really was amazing timing. We still haven't found out what it was exactly. But whatever happened it fried our tv, literally. We had it checked out today and it's a complete loss. The good news is it will be partially covered by our insurance. So, new tv for us!

Scarecrow Festival

October is a month of traditions for us. We always get go to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins and check out the witches at Gardner Village. We've added a new tradition this year - the Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving Point. We heard this was a lot of fun from my cousin Shannon. It was a blast! Sydney got a pony ride, a train ride, and all the jumping she could handle. They had over a dozen of those huge blow-up bouncy pads and slides all lined up on one end of the festival. And I must say, she is quite the dare-devil. I know I would have been scared to go down some of those slides but she had no fear. I think kids must be made of rubber. Some of them were bouncing all over the place on the way down. I'm just grateful Sydney slid down gracefully. Tanner and Natalie also had a good time. They love to get out and see new people and places. It was well worth the few bucks to get in!

Double the Cuteness

Well there are many things about having twins that are hard. But there is something extra cute about having two babies together and how they interact with eachother. Feeding times are especially cute. We try to have them always eat at the same time, whether it's nursing or baby food. I nurse them at the same time. I often feel like one of those mama pigs that just lays there (I sit though) and the little piglets gather around and find their spot. Maybe this is because my babies snort when they get worked up. Anyways, lately they hold hands while they're nursing. It's so sweet! I'd take a picture but, you know, not really appropriate. They are also very cute when we feed them baby food. For some reason I have no problem letting them share binkies and bottles, but when I feed them solids they have to have separate spoons. They look so cute sitting in their bumbos next to each other. As I've mentioned before, Tanner seems to be willing to eat at all times. So if he's laying next to Natalie and her hand or head gets near his mouth, he will try his hardest to eat her. She never seems to mind. One of these pictures looks like he's giving her a kiss, but he's just trying to latch on.

Explaining Why

We have been trying to teach our 3-year-old Sydney what the word "why" means. When we ask her "Why didn't you go potty in the potty seat?" or "Why did you fill up the toilet with baby wipes?" She just gives us this blank stare. Sometimes she answers the question like we're asking her where she did things. We've tried to get her to fill in the blank -- "I did this because..." I guess this is one of those things that they just have to catch on to naturally. Defining the word why just doesn't work too well. I don't even know how to do it without using bigger words that she also doesn't know. I'm sure once she figures it out she'll be asking me why all day long. I'd like to learn her reasoning on some of the random things she does though.

My Day Off

I have such a super husband who insisted on giving me a whole Saturday off. It was fabulous! My mom and sister had been planning a craft day down in Orem for a while, and I got to join them completely kid-free. I love my kids with all my heart, but I think I really needed this day. And when I came home the house was even cleaner than I left it! We'll get him some tights and a cape and call him Super Dad! I think we've discovered a good little trading system to give us each a little more free time. He got a day earlier in the week and I got mine a few days later. We obviously can't do this every week, but every once in a while it's a good idea.

Baby smiles

Natalie and Tanner have the cutest smiles. They are both such happy babies and it's very easy to get them to smile. It's easy to get Sydney to smile now, but not so much when she was 4 months old. Daddy can get these two to laugh like no one else can. He says they have a ticklish spot, but I guess I can't find it.

Sydney's computer games

While I was recovering from my surgery I decided to teach Sydney how to use a mouse so she could entertain herself on the computer for a little while. She caught on pretty fast! You can see she concentrates very hard on her games. We are big fans of pbskids.org. She also likes to use Paint and makes me some very abstract artwork. I love the mess-free part of that kind of painting. The only downside to this new source of entertainment is that now I have to share my computer and take turns. But I'm a grown-up and I suppose I can handle a little sharing.

Tanner's bananas

My Tanner boy is not a fat baby, though he does look huge compared to his twin sister. But he has quite an appetite! I guess that's the way it is with boys. It's hard enough providing enough milk for two babies, especially when one is a little pig! I've been having a hard time keeping up with his demands lately so we gave in the other night and offered him some smashed up bananas. We were only 2 days before the 4-month mark so I figured it was alright. I didn't expect him to eat much his first time but he LOVED them! He would try to lunge at the spoon every time it got close and he'd scream if we were too slow getting his next bite. He ate almost a half a banana. Very impressive.

The Fly

My daughter, Sydney, calls all flies "fruit flies" ever since I explained to her about why we should not leave watermelon sitting around in the kitchen. Last night I was resting on the couch with my leg wrapped, elevated, and icing when a fly landed on my foot. My natural reaction was to shake my leg to get it off. So I did and it nearly killed me! It's still in quite a bit of pain from the surgery and I've been moving it as little as possible the last few days. So my impulse to shake my leg (which barely even moved) not only resulted in a huge amount of pain, but failed to get the fly off my foot. So I was screaming because it hurt and yelling, "Get it off! Get if off!" My mom, Josh, and Sydney were all looking at me like I'd lost my mind. They didn't know how badly I'd hurt myself. So today, I did something - I think I may have tipped over my water bottle or something like that - and I gave a little yell. Sydney comes running over and asks, totally serious and concerned, "What's wrong mama? Did a fruit fly get you?"

Twilight

Well I'm convinced that vampires are real now. Kinda like reading Harry Potter makes you think your a muggle and there are witches and wizards out there, you just don't know who they are. I'm only about 2/3 of the way through this book. It's been one of my sources of entertainment whilst I lay here on the couch all day, recovering. Now I highly recommend this book. It's been very fun to read. But every once in a while I roll my eyes at the mushy, sappy romance stuff. Do people really talk that way? I guess I'm not your typical emotional girl. Anyways, I find those parts slightly humorous at times. But it's been fascinating story and I think I'll just stay here in Utah where it's almost always sunny and I will never encounter a vampire.

ACL Reconstruction

I'm just throwing this little piece of advice out to the world. When you go snow skiing be sure your skiis are properly binded. If you can kick your skiis against the wall and they do not pop off they most likely will not pop off if you fall while skiing. This was my experience 8 years ago. I had just bought a season pass and with one spectacular fall the second time down the slope I was in the first aid room with a torn ACL. So I had surgery a couple months later to repair it. A couple years after that I had another surgery to clean out scar tissue that was causing some pain. On the 4th of July this year I slipped on the steps going out to our garage. I tore it again! So I just had surgery again yesterday. Now when I was 17 recovering from surgery was difficult but I only had myself to take care of. It's been a bit more challenging with 3 kids. Apparently they do the operation differently now and my recovering should be a bit faster. I'll be on crutches for 1-2 weeks and the doctor says he hopes I'll be running again in 2 months. I feel very lucky to have a mom who's been waiting on me hand and foot and a husband who is so good with the kids. However, I'm very much hoping this is the last time I bust this knee.

First Day of School

We quoted a lot of Finding Nemo on Tuesday -- "first day of school! First day of School!" Sydney was super excited about going to her first day of pre-school. It's hard believe I have a pre-schooler already. On her first day of school she learned about the color red, the number one, the letter A, and about alligators. She brought home an apple paper bag puppet. She was so proud of all her school work and practiced writing the number one for quite a while that afternoon. Her class is on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So the second day of school was supposed to be today. Unfortunately, Sydney woke up with pink eye this morning and had to miss school. She was so upset and cried on the way home from the instacare. We'll have to remember to tell her about that later on in life when she complains about having to go to school.

Kid update

Well, obviously I've gotten a bit behind on the blogging. It seems I hardly ever have two hands free at a computer anymore. I've become very good at checking my email while I nurse the twins but terrible at responding. Typing out a whole email with my one available hand usually doesn't appeal to me. I have recently enjoyed a couple nights of extra sleep. Two nights in a row this week Tanner and Natalie slept until 5 am, so I only ended up getting up once a night to feed them. I decided to try swaddling them again and it seemed to help a lot. I thought swaddling was just for newborns. They are 3 months old now and it seems they still like it.
Lately I've really been looking forward to my little trips to the grocery store, the gym, or the DMV. Wherever I can get a little time to myself really. My oldest daughter, Sydney is in need of a little more social interaction I belive. I love her and the cute things she says but sometimes the non-stop chatter can wear on me a little. It's amazing how persistent kids are. She will repeat something a hundred times until I respond. She will be starting pre-school in 2 weeks which I think will be a nice break for both of us.

My Little Angels

I'm finally blogging about Tanner and Natalie's blessing day that was last Sunday. It's nice to look at pictures of them being so peaceful and cute. At this moment they are both crying and won't be soothed. They have been fed and have clean diapers and I can really only hold one at a time. So, they are exercising their lungs and I've learned to be okay with that. They looked so adorable on Sunday and we took tons of pictures. It was a very nice day. Zachary's blessing was later that same day so we got to see a lot of our family. Sydney was in heaven because she got to see her cousins. She has 23 cousins on her daddy's side and none on my side. I have a few siblings who I hope will do something about that sometime soon. But for now our kids get spoiled extra by their grandparents.

Lots of reading

Our Harry Potter book finally arrived last night. I'm afraid I've been a slightly neglectful mother today, although I did hold my twins a lot while I read. I held them a lot because they sleep very well while they are held which allowed for more quiet reading time. Tonight I might be paying for all the sleep they got during the day.
Sydney watched a lot of "My Little Pony" which we borrowed from the library. I used to love My Little Pony when I was little. In fact, I remember I learned how to tell when it would be on tv by watching for when the sun hit a certain spot on the kitchen floor. Well it's lost a bit of its appeal to me but Sydney really likes it now.
Well, as far as the late arrival of our Harry Potter book goes, it was apparently not guaranteed to arrive on the 21st. Only Amazon does that. Good to know.

Where's my Harry Potter??

Well we've been looking forward to the guaranteed delivery of our Harry Potter book all week. What an extreme dissapointment by Barnes and Noble yesterday when it never came! Josh only checked the UPS tracking website about a hundred times that day to see that it was still in transit to the final destination. We neglected to change the delivery address to our new house so we let the new owners of our old house know it would be coming and we would come get it. I'm sure they were tired of us calling them by the end of the day. We watched the news last night and saw all the happy people who received their books. It was practically the only thing on the news along with all the wild fires in the state. While out at my parents home today I managed to steel my brothers book for a little while and got in the first couple chapters. And now today we are wondering what the guaranteed delivery was all about. Do we get the book free now? I'll report on that when we find out.

Chocolate or Ice Cream?

Today I took Sydney to my hairdresser for her first "real" haircut. I've given her many trims before to keep her hair healthy and even but it kept getting in her eyes so I decided to let a professional take over. I really talked it up the day before so she wouldn't be worried about a stranger coming at her with scissors. It was a pretty fun experience. My daughter has quite a healthy ego. She can be pretty entertained just by admiring herself in the mirror. She absolutely loves shoe shopping and buying dresses. The idea that a haircut would make her prettier was all she needed to cooperate. She sat perfectly still the whole time staring into the mirror, totally all business. She only glanced at me a couple times just to flash me her beauty pageant smile.
Later in the day I decided she was overdue for a nap. I got her into her room and I was very excited that she might actually take a nap while the twins slept. I thought I might get a nap too! I always read her a story before she goes to bed. Her two favorite stories right now are "Curious George and the Chocolate Factory" and "Curious George and the Ice Cream Shop". As Sydney laid down in her bed I asked her "Do you want chocolate or ice cream?" She sat right up and said "I want ice cream!" I suppose I should have asked her "What book do you want me to read?" instead. She didn't talk me into giving her any ice cream and I didn't talk her into taking a nap after that.

The big step

Well I am taking my big step into the world of the bloggers. I'm the world's worst journal writer and that's mostly because I don't like writing things out with a pen and paper. So I think typing in a blog will work out much better for me. I am about to celebrate surviving my first 2 months of being a mom of three. This is an extra big accomplishment since two of the three are newborn twins. As much as I was scared to death to have twins, I now can't imagine life without them. Things are pretty crazy around our house most of the time but I wouldn't trade it in for anything. Our 3-year-old daughter, Sydney, is the best thing that ever happened to us. She's such a good helper and always tries to make her parents happy. She has her occasional tantrum but she's dealt with a lot of changes in her life very smoothly. I'd love to think that her goodness is a result of our parenting because that would make it likely that our other children will turn out the same way. But, I think she's just a good-natured kid and we had very little to do with it. I have recently been reading a book called "It's Twins!" which has several articles from parents with their own stories and advice. The first sections was on newborns which was so sweet and talked a lot about breastfeeding and sleeping schedules. I felt so proud of myself for mastering breastfeeding two babies at once. The next section was on raising twin toddlers. Suddenly, this very sweet book turned into a very scary book. I'll try to stay optomistic that my twins will make it through those terrible twos without feeding off each other too much. In the meantime, I'll enjoy how sweet and cuddly they are now.