My Girls

Grandma Smith made the girls Christmas dresses and today was the first time they had a chance to wear them. They looked so pretty that I had to take a picture.

We had a nice Christmas, my Mom and Dad, Neal and Cory and Melissa and their cute kids, Hafen and Hudson came over for the afternoon and had dinner with us, played games and visited. The highlight for the kids' presents were a pogo stick for Veronica (which she has quickly mastered), a Skateboard with pads, etc. for Tyler and a Digital Littlest Pet Shop for Samantha. We even had a white Christmas which is always a little magical.

My mom and Neal were very kind and came over on the day after Christmas to watch all of the kids for a night, giving Joe and I a very much desired night away, the first since the twins were born. Thanks again!

Sledding

We finally have snow!!! We woke up on Friday to about 5 inches of snow. Bliss to the kids and I who have been anxiously awaiting it, not so much to Joe, who does not look forward to it as much as the rest of us.

We took advantage of it on Saturday and invited some friends to come sledding with us. We all had a good time. Tyler is a little daredevil who will try anything, it is a good thing that the hill we sled on is a small one! Even Brenna and Braelynn had a good time. I was nervous about letting them go down the hill, and even about bringing them. They love the snow but little ones get cold fast. Joe convinced me to let them ride down with him a few times and a few times with me. After one time, they were hooked! At the end, they were even going down the hill by themselves. When it was time to go, they tried everything to not have to get in the car but when Brenna finally realized that we were going to go no matter how much they fought, she resorted to pointing down the hill crying "please, please, please".

Fun, fun fun...

My side of the family is just getting too big to fit into anyones home and we wanted to have a little Christmas party since we wouldn't be together for any of the holidays this year my parents were kind enough to rent a vacation home in Parowan for two nights. We had a great time, I always have fun when the whole family is together. It is always entertaining to watch the cousins play together as well as the big boys (brothers and brothers-in law). Here are a few pictures!

Baptism Day

Tyler was baptised a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and confirmed on Saturday, December 15. He was very lucky to have most of his uncles, aunts and cousins there, as well as his Grandpa and Grandma Haley and Smith and his great-Grandpa Smith. It was a special day for him and we appreciate the fact that he has such good examples all around him to look up to.

Tis the season

For FHE tonight we got together with our friends the Clarke's to make graham cracker "gingerbread" houses. Between our five kids and their two they made short work of a LOT of candy, both on the houses and in their bellies. We had a great time, it was fun to see the kids express their creativity in a different way, but next time maybe we shouldn't do the sugar rush thing so close to bedtime!

Breakfast with Santa

On Saturday I took the Tyler, Sam, Brenna and Braelynn to a local grocery store to have breakfast with Santa. They had fun eating doughnuts, drinking milk, sitting on Santa's lap and afterwards making snowmen out of cupcakes, marshmallows, frosting and candy. Nothing like a little sugar at 9:00 a.m. to start the day out right!

Veronica had an exciting day yesterday, she had the opportunity to meet the author of the Fablehaven series, Brandon Mull. She and her Grandma and Grandpa Haley have loved reading his series, so can you imagine their excitement when they found out that he was coming to Cedar City for a book signing? They waited in line for three hours to have their books signed and also were able to get some posters and stickers.
On another note, Samantha had her first big-stage clogging performance last Saturday. When I asked how it was performing in front of all those people on such a big stage, she said "Mom, I just loved it, it was the best thing ever!".

I can see clearly now...

We had some money left over in our medical savings account this year that had to be used up so on Monday we drove to Boise Idaho (even with the gas money, it still saved us a lot of money versus going to Salt Lake or Las Vegas) to get lasics eye surgery for Joe. The surgery went great and now he can see perfect without glasses! This is something that I have wanted to do for him for a long time and I am so grateful that we had the opportunity to get it done. That, and I personally think he looks really good without glasses!

Joe's mom was kind enough to watch Veronica, Tyler and Samantha so that they didn't have to miss school and Brenda and Andrew and Kegan were very nice to let us stay with them for a few nights. We had a blast hanging out with them and Brenna and Braelynn had fun playing with their cousin Kegan.

8 years old!

Happy Birthday Tyler! Today Tyler turns eight. Because we had some things going on tonight, we had is birthday party yesterday. Uncle Dave brought over his Nintendo Wii for the kids to play so the boys played that and a few other games, made and ate their own pizzas, had cake and ice cream and just had fun being boys.

Tyler is excited to turn eight because now he can be baptised but especially because he is now old enough to go to cub scouts (something he has been very anxiously awaiting for a few years now). His den leader invited him to go on Wednesday, so he got all dressed up in his uniform that Grandma and Grandpa Smith got him for his birthday present. I don't think I have ever seen him so excited before and after.

Here is a few pictures of his party and him in his cub scout uniform. By the way, his cake was a TV remote...that is what he wanted?!?!

Secret Language

Being a mom of twins we, naturally, get a lot of people commenting and asking us questions. Do you remember those days, Jody? Some are obvious (you must have your hands full), some are a little too personal (so were you on fertility drugs?), some annoying (my friends/husbands/cousins granddaughter had twin grandkids/cousins.....), but some are legit. The one we currently get asked the most is if they have their own language. The answer is yes, they do. Nothing in particular, they will "talk" to each other all the time and you can just tell that they understand what has just been said.
A few days ago, though, we had our first real example of that. Brenna is going through a real stubborn stage. Every once in a while if she does not get her way about something she will just throw a fit, a big, huge fit. I have found that for her the best way to deal with it is to just let her throw her fit and when she is done, she will gradually calm down and feel better afterwards.
On Tuesday, she was throwing a fit about something so me and Braelynn were going about our business and in the course of about 5 minutes we had checked on her a few times to see if she wanted to read a book or play but each time it was a no and she would keep screaming. Since it was about time for the older kids to get home from school I started to cut some pumpkin bread into slices so they could have some for a snack. Braelynn asked for a bite, so I gave her one and then her eyes got really big and she hurried into the other room. Right then Brenna stopped her screaming and they came out together to get some pumpkin bread.
After that, I don't have any more doubts. I could tell that Brenna understood what Braelynn wanted to tell her. I am so grateful to be a mom and especially a mom of twins. When I first found out that I was expecting twins I will be the first to admit that I did not handle it very well but it has been a huge growing experience for me and I have had so much fun with them. They bring so much joy and laughter into our family.

My simple pleasures

I am a firm believer in being happy in whatever stage of life you are in, whatever your situation (something I am sure my parents thought I would never learn!) I realized a few years ago that the stages of life I was in that I thought were difficult (being single, college, young mom with little kids at home, etc.) when I looked back they were trying at times, yes, but they eventually evolved and changed and while I was enjoying where I was at currently I would look back at those times with fond memories. Since then I try to count my blessings on a daily basis, and take pleasure in the "simple things" that are around me. I have recently realized, though, that even though I do this in my head constantly I have never made a list of some of the things I enjoy on a daily basis, so since this is the season of giving thanks, my favorite time of year, I decided I would make a list of what I call my simple pleasures and some of the things I am thankful for.
-Having my best friend as my husband.
-Finding the perfect park to take the twins. Bonus: it even has Internet access, so Joe can take his laptop and do homework while we play so he can enjoy it too!
-Girls night out.
-The way Samantha sings all the time about everything!
-Tender mercies. For those that have not read or heard this talk by Elder David Bednar here is a link to the talk. http://www.lds.org/portal/site/LDSOrg/menuitem.b12f9d18fae655bb69095bd3e44916a0/?vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=0a838fbe352fe010VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=1
-Diet food chocolate options, so that every once in a while I can indulge and not feel guilty.
-Wonderful parents, siblings and in-laws.
-Having family time, which we manage to do quite often.
-Modern medical technology, having an eye doctor that knows of alternative ways to help Veronica's eyes so she doesn't need to have bifocals at age 10 and not even charging us for the appointment!
-My double stroller and my stroller cover so that I can still take my daily morning walks even when it gets cold outside and keep the twins warm.

Playmates

Like most one-year olds, Brenna and Braelynn love to sing and play games. Their current favorite is ring around the rosie. Yesterday they started playing it with each other without anyone helping them. They did it quite a bit all day but they are such camera hogs that everytime I pulled out the camera they would stop and show off. I finally got a video halfway through one song and into the next.

Trunks, Treats and Chili

Trunk-or-treat! Every year we head out to Grandma and Grandpa Haley's house for their neighborhood trunk-or-treat. It is always a lot of fun to meet out there and see everyone, see all the cousins in their cute costumes, go trunk-or-treating and take (or attempt to take!) a picture with the cousins.

Afterwards, we go to our wards annual chili cook-off for chili and cinnamon rolls. I took second place this year, yea!

Parowan Petroglyphs

We just love living in Cedar City. There are so many fun and free things to do in our own backyard, as they say. Cedar City is named the Festival City for a very good reason. There are always fun festivals going on, there are several state and national parks within a 30-minute to 2-hour drive, amazing playgrounds, nice weather and kinds of neat historical things to visit.

We had a fun weekend this past week, there was a livestock and heritage festival going on complete with a parade and rodeo. The kids and I went to the parade on saturday to see a LOT of sheep being herded down mainstreet along with some other cool things. Later that evening we went to the rodeo with Uncle Neal. Joe and I celebrated our 11 th anniversary on the 25 th so Neal volunteered to come over to watch the kids for us so that we could go out to lunch and decided to spend the night and go to the rodeo with us.

The kids were out of school on Monday and Tuesday and the weather was beautiful! So on Monday we headed out to the Parowan Petroglyphs for a picnic lunch and some hiking and just spending time as a family, my favorite thing in the world to do.

Our camera had to be sent in for repairs, so I am resorting to our old one that takes picutures sometimes and sometimes not, so I only got a few picutures of us at the gap. I am also including a link that tells about the gap.

http://www.scienceviews.com/indian/parowangap.html

Girls Day

Seeing as how it is the first day of the deer hunt and Joe drew out on a tag this year, the hunters are gone for the day. Since it is just the girls home we decided to do our own mini spa day. We did homemadefacials and hair treatments. That means we have radiant skin and soft hair in a warm home while the boys are dirty and cold!

Our Clogger

Samantha has been clogging for about a month now and loves it! She finally has her little clogging outfit and her shoes. She starts to remind me on Monday or Tuesday about her lessons which aren't until Thursday!

Science Project

Veronica's class learned about volcanoes then made their own volcanoes to take to school and set off. She wanted me to post the pictures that Joe took at school on eruption day.

For Sale

Well, we did it! After ten years of living here we put our house up on the market. It is a little bit sad, after all, we brought all five of our kids home to this house. We love this house but either it is getting a bit small or we are getting too big! But we are excited about the future and the changes that will happen when the house sells and when Joe finishes school in May. We have always been blessed about being guided about what we need to do for our family and am grateful for those little promptings that help guide us to where we need to be and what we need to be doing.

The link to the mls listing is http://www.cedarcityera.com/Cedar_City/Utah/Homes/Cedar_City/Cedar_City_North/Agent/Listing_1331462.html

Diaper Duty

This happened a few weeks ago, but I wanted to share. I was in the middle of finding some paperwork when I looked around the corner to see what Brenna and Braelynn were doing. Both my sense of sight and smell caught up with me at the same time. I smelled the telltale messy diaper smell at the same time I saw Braelynn lying on the floor with Brenna taking off Braelynn's diaper! Much to my relief, it was Brenna that had the messy diaper.
I am curious to know if Braelynn was just on the floor and Brenna decided to play with the diaper or there was something more to it, if by chance they had seen mom do it so many times that they decided to try it.

Our Fall Tradition

Every year, as one of our traditions for Halloween we go to Paragonah, a small town about 20 minutes away, to the Judd pumpkin patch and pick pumpkins. It is one of my favorite things to do as a family and I look forward to it every year. It is a beautiful drive and a good time to enjoy my husband and kids. Brenna picked up a small, squishy pumpkin and would not let it go (the one she has in her hand in the family picture). She just held it in one arm and held my hand with the the other and walked all over the pumpkin patch that way!