The Desert

This weekend we went on a little road trip to the desert. It was awesome. Among our adventures were visiting Zion National Park, jumping in to a river with our clothes on, a little hiking, a little shopping, and a lot of fun.
I feel so blessed. As we came in to town this Mother's Day evening, I felt tired and annoyed that I have to get up for work tomorrow. But when I tucked the last little munchkin in to bed this evening, I looked at all of them sleeping. Sometimes being a mom is really hard. Often I don't feel I can muster up even an ounce of energy after I come home from work. But I am tellin' ya, every sleep deprived second is worth it for the unlimited hugs and kisses I receive on a daily basis.

Nine Months

 Oh yeah. Nine months old. I never really complained much when I was pregnant with them, I'm just not the complaining type. But I will tell you what, that was the most painful nine months of my entire life. Carrying two full term babies makes your pelvis feel as though it may split in half at any moment (excuse the explicit details) 
But THIS nine past months has been quite different. Not quite as physically painful but it has been packed with challenges and tons of awesomeness too. Even 2 years ago I wouldn't have even fathomed the possibility of twins. Sometimes I still think it's crazy.
We started with sleepless nights and tooons of diaper changes every day. And here we are, just 3 months shy of a year and we are still alive. Sometimes it makes me sad how fast they are growing. I know it will be no time before they are suddenly grown up. My favorite time of the day is walking in the house after work and seeing my kiddos, just as excited as ever. I love how their faces light up. Like they still think I am cool all day every day....if only we could keep that going forever!

Now for a great Kayla moment:
We were sitting in the evening reading a church story. The word repent came up.
"Kayla, do you know what 'repent' means?"
"Yeah, I totally do."
"Tell me what you think it means."
"Mom YOU know, repint, like on Pinterest. It's when you repint something that you like."

She always keeps me guessing and I love it. Today she was making up songs in the car about how much she loves us. Apparently she loves me more than cotton candy, more than cake and more than money. That's pretty rad if you ask me.

Uh Oh...

We have problem...Brody is crawling. He started about 2 weeks ago and he crawls everywhere and fast! And just in the last couple of days, he has started to pull himself up onto his feet. Oh geez.
We can barely keep up with the little dude. McKay, on the other hand (and luckily) is still a little lazy (or laid back or whatever makes you feel better saying when you think a baby is lazy) He is NOT crawling thank goodness. But I really do not know what we will do when he does. I think I have mentioned this before but a lot of people ask me the question "how do you do twins?" My honest answer to that is: I have no idea, but we don't have much of a choice and we do okay.

I just took a different job. At the moment I work at a facility for troubled teens. The new job is at a hospital doing all the nursing skills I worked hard to learn in school. I love the kids at work and the people I work with and will miss them but I am really excited about the change. I am going scrubs shopping this week and buying a stethoscope (this is the part where you laugh at me for being a nerd but I am excited okay!)  


Today I signed Kayla up for Kindergarten. I know I am supposed to be sad and cry for my baby girl to go but I am not gonna lie, I am really excited for her. The girl gets bored here with her brothers all day, heavens knows she needs to go to kindergarten!!

And a little note: when you see twins in public with an order sibling and decide to dote over the twins PLEASE acknowledge the older sibling! It breaks my heart when people stop us and start asking about the twins and Kayla chimes in with "Um, I am five!" I know people are just excited to see the boys but the older sibling does get placed on the back burner.

That's all for my little random things for today. Goal for the month of May: blog more!

Kindness

Springtime is making life even more beautiful. We met cousins at a huge park in Salt Lake last week. Seeing Kayla with her cousins giggling, running around, rolling down glassy hills, and holding hands makes me wish Kayla has a sister around her age. Oh well, you can't have everything. And heaven knows I count my blessings every day.
The other day I went to a restaurant where Sean had called in a dinner to-go. As I got out of my car, I realized I had left my wallet at home. I had a checkbook and crossed my fingers that they took checks. I asked the lady at the checkout if they took checks and briefly told her I left my wallet at home. She asked and told me they did not take checks. A woman next to me, about my age said "let me pay for it." I looked at her surprised and said "No no, it's okay, it's 2 meals but thank you so much, you are so kind." Persistent she asked the cashier "how much is it and handed the cashier her debit card." The young mom looked at me and said "please let me do this for you. Last week I lost my wallet and someone did the same for me, I have been praying for an opportunity to help someone else the way someone helped me." Baffled, I accepted. I thanked her a number of times. This person will never know the impact she had on me. She makes me want to be a better person and seek out opportunities to help people out. I plan to pay this amazing act of kindness forward.
We all struggle in different ways. Everyone is in need of random acts of kindness. A hug, a note, a smile or a word of encouragement. May we all strive to seek these opportunities out.

Not Forgotten

I know I blog a lot about the twins but Kayla will not be forgotten. A whopping five years old, she will start Kindergarten in August.
I know I am overly nostalgic but, again, I have been thinking back to when she was just a little thing. Sean and I were looking at posts from when she was 2 and 3 and we were completely blown away. It seems so unfair that she grows so fast. I would really give anything just to turn back time and spend a few moments with her again when she was so proud of herself for walking or standing or figuring out how to use a crayon. It is so fun to see her grow in to a thinker. It's amazing to see how she is forming opinions, I mean, real opinions. Not ones about which shirt she'll wear but opinions about what is kind and what is mean. Opinions about how to solve problems. She's even got opinions about how to make people feel good about themselves. So thoughtful and observant yet stubborn and sassy.
She will forever be my first born. My baby.

Rad

These kids are pretty Rad. As if we didn't have enough opinion in our house, these guys have proven to have quite the personalities. Brody has a belly laugh that would make the hardest of folks smile. McKay is still the lover of affection. He would be more than happy to be held all day every day. Brody is still determined to figure out the crawling thing. He scoots all over the floor and rocks on his hands and knees. McKay watches and I think he has decided he is going to figure things out too. He is showing a litte more interest, but I think Brody is going to crawl circles around him if he doesn't become more pro-active about the situation! Brody started giving kisses. Open mouth, slobbery and full of love. His new kiss-giving trick has brightened my life even more, and it was pretty awesome to begin with. Kayla was supposed to be in this photo shoot but she has a tummy bug and does not feel up to it. She is however, continuing to demonstrate fantastic ability as a big sister. She is nothing but sweet and kind to these boys. So lucky to have her. She is going in to Kindergarten this year! Can't believe it, seems impossible.

Thoughts.

Soon I am going to have a new neice. My brother and his wife are going to become parents in the coming week or so. It's taken my mind back to when I found out we were expecting Kayla. About 6 years ago, I was surprised when I found out that a third person would be joining our party of two. I mostly imagined a baby. A snuggly, precious little baby that I could snuggle and snuggle all day. That's what I got, a snuggly perfect little girl. I held her for the entire first six months of life. All day, every day, didn't get a whole lot of other things done. Now that she is going to be in Kindergarten this year, do I regret my decision to forsake all other responsibilities for 6 months to hold that little girl? No. Not even for a second. She has become an independant thinker. She is smart and amazing. She wows us with her kindness. She is a girl that truly cares about others. At that moment, when I found out she would be joining our family, I could not have imagined the girl she is today. It happens faster than anyone could fathom. And now I am seeing it again with my boys. The time seems to be screaming by when all I want to do is continually freeze these beautiful moments of parenthood. Moments that quickly become memories.