it's a girl!!

Scream Yay!! My darling sister Shelly is having a girl!

Thanks to Shelly and Kristen both my babies will have cousins close to their age and gender! Here is a pic of the precious baby Madison!

Slowing down

While searching for some scrapbook inspiration i found the following quote- wow! So true, i needed this...

Pastor & author Marc Buchanan, upon being asked what was the most profound regret in his life:

Being in a hurry. Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. I cannot think of a single advantage I’ve ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing. Through all that haste, I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away.

Click here to read more on slowing down and enjoying life...

6 months old!

The piece of advice we received before we had the twins was to be prepared to sit on the couch for the first 6 months and cry...
I am proud to say that as of Saturday the 19th the twinos are 6 months old, so at the stroke of midnight we got up from the couch and stopped crying! actually the last month has gradually become easier and easier (i use that term lightly!).

The last month has been a busy one for Micah and Hallie, they are learning, growing, and changing so quickly! It has been really fun to watch the dynamics change between them, I have pics and videos I will post soon! But for now here's some tidbits about each one...

Micah lights up anytime we come into the room- he gets a huge grin on his face- especially when he sees mommy. He loves to lay on belly and spin in circles playing with different toys on the way. He giggles frequently and loves to cuddle. He now sleeps with Octy the teddy (teddy blanket with satin and an octopus on it) and still loves his binky! He goes to bed about 7:30 wakes up most mornings and plays with his feet until mommy comes to get him around 7. He's quite the charmer!

Hallie charms the world with her big toothless grin and sparkles in her eyes. When she gets excited her arms and legs flail- she does this pretty much whenever she sees her daddy, except for when he wears a baseball hat or is really tired- then she cries :) She cringes and tenses up when you scratch her back and will eventually giggle. She squeals in delight and frustration and poor thing- her teeth still haven't poked through! She sleeps with monkey man from auntie Peggy and loves her teething tablets! She goes to sleep around 7:30 also and plays with monkey (surprised he doesn't have whiplash!) until mommy comes and she pants loudly with excitement! Watch out world she'll get you with those eyes!

Watch out Iron Chef!!

So this may be common practice for some of you, but I have thought that Tyson is SO cool for ever because he can flip an egg without a spatula, by using the pan and "just a flick of the wrist" as he describes it- something that i thought i could never do, but today I DID IT!! Tyson and the babies were napping and i was making myself an egg and thought "hey why not give it a shot, what's there to lose- only an egg and a little mess!" So I decided to go for it- so I flicked the wrist and flipped my egg!! and for those that know me well, know this is a big accomplishment cause I'm pretty much the biggest klutz ever!
So here's my BEAUTIFUL "flipped without a spatula" egg!

Top 10 reasons no one should ever wish for twins...

**post disclaimer- first we apologize to anyone who may have wished they had twins, please don't take offense to this and second, we're not complaining and wouldn't give either of them up for anything, just merely stating the facts of life with twins, we would be lying to ourselves (and you!) if we didn't record this part of life :) and plus, what's life without a little humor!?!

so here they are...

10. instead of snapping 564,281 snaps we have to snap 1,128,562 snaps!
9. we change 8-20 diapers a day as opposed to 4-10
8. you thought it was hard to find a sitter for 1 baby- try 2!
7. we consider it a break to only take care of 1 baby
6. double the formula/double the feeding time (even if you feed them at the same time it still takes longer!)
5. break?? ha ha no... SWAP
4. double the laundry
3. (use your imagination here) you figure out the logistics of doing anything with 2 babies! (not exactly the easiest thing in the world!)
2. tag team crying
1. synchronized crying

and finally here are some twin quotes for your enjoyment!

• It is not economical to go to bed early to save the candles if the result is twins. (Chinese Proverb)
• When I have a kid, I wanna put him in one of those strollers for twins, then run around the mall looking frantic. (Steven Wright)
• "There are two things in this life for which we are never fully prepared, and that is twins." (Josh Billings)
• "Calm is for Wimps!! Get Real. Get Stressed. HAVE TWINS!" (Unknown)
• I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I had a choice, I'd rather go to war. (President George W. Bush)

and last but definitely not least, at least i'm not this lady- holy smokes!!! slow down lady!

Mrs. Fyodor Vassilyev (also known as Mrs. Feodor Vassiliev or Mrs. Fyodor Vassilet) of Shuya, Russia (1707-1782), 16 sets of twins, 7 sets of triplets, 4 sets of quadrupletsMrs. Vassilyev gave birth to 69 children, 67 of whom survived infancy with most surviving to adulthood.
She was the 1st wife of Mr. Vassiliev, and they lived outside of Shuya, Russia, and were peasants who farmed off the land. The children were born between 1725 and 1765. It was reported and recorded by a monastery in 1782. Empress Ekaterina the 2nd was supposedly very captivated by the story. It is the only authenticated case of a woman having more than 60 children. It is believed that she and her husband eventually split up, as he did remarry.
Other notable families with multiple multiples include Mrs. Mary Jones of Chester, England, who gave birth to 15 sets of fraternal boy-girl twins in the 19th Century and Maddalena Granata (1839-1866) of Nocera Superiore, Italy, who allegedly had 15 sets of triplets.

you can see the flip side of life with twins... the top 10 reasons we love having twins by following this link. enjoy!

Let the games begin...

This post will be followed shortly by 10 reasons no one should wish for twins... but for now they have started the tug-of-war with objects, it's a little amusing at least for now, but give it a few weeks and i'm sure the amusement will be gone :)

Hallie's tricks

Lately Hallie does this super cute thing with her bottom lip, she sucks it in. I've been trying to get a really good shot, but haven't been able to catch a really good one. Here's a few second rate shots :)

ps doesn't it remind you a little of the old "bitter beer face" commercials!?!

When daddy watches us...

we watch the TV!!

7:59!

So it's 7:59, ok a little past that now, but Micah and Hallie have been asleep for over 1/2 hour, the house is clean (ok well all except for the bedroom, but at this point in our life, the bedroom doesn't count!), and ty is working until 10:30... SO what does that mean!! scream yeah! for me! I think i'll post a couple blog enteries :) and maybe venture over to my scrapbooking stuff for a few, and then cuddle up on the couch with a yummy bowl of chocolate fudge brownie ice cream, my warm blanket, and watch a movie! could live get any better... (only if it were ben&jerry's half baked- chocolate fudge brownie AND cookie dough all rolled into one carton of WAY too many calories!)

MS Walk

Thanks to all of you who made the MS walk, and those of you who contributed! Our team raised over $2400 which was well over our team goal! We had a great time and enjoyed some great weather!! the twinos made it the full 4 miles and "cheered" their mommy on for a mile jog to the finish line so they could eat :) here are some pics from our adventure...




"Bruce's Buddies" on the walk

My cutie prego sis!

Micah and Hallie ready to go!

double trouble!- uncle al and dad

Busy Boy

As of today, Micah is proud to announce he can now grab a toy out of sister's hands, roll across the living room, and spin circles on his tummy... he's been a busy boy!

A look into the past...

I apologize in advance for the length of this one, but 10 years is along time!

So Sunday while ty was away at drill, the babies were sleeping and I got to thinking about how much my life has changed! 6 months ago, I was hugely pregnant (35 1/2 weeks to be exact) I was all done with work and spending my time sleeping, scrapbooking, getting the house ready for the twinos- wow! how have things changed! it seems like 2 different worlds! don't get me wrong i wouldn't change any of it for the world- i've dreamed of being a mom for SO long, but like i said wow! I have so many feelings about this i've loved every minute of being a mom, yes even the REALLY hard one's now that i look back, but i definitely took my freedom forgranted.

No more late night spontaneous trips to applebees (side note- which is where i was when i started to feel my first actual contractions!) no more spontaneous, while really no more spontaneous anything, no more monthly all day shopping trips to spokane, no more size 10 pants, anyway the list could go on, but would i change any of it- NO WAY!! like i said i love being a mom, life is just different now, and we still get around pretty good if you ask me!

SO after i got to thinking about how different life was 6 months ago, i started to think farther back, so here's a glimpse into the past...

6 months ago...

1 year ago...age 25, 3 months pregnant, working at Lourdes, and still wondering what flavor of twins we were having!

2 years ago- age 24, living in Kennewick, just starting fertility treatments, working at lourdes, my cousin, sister, and hs friend all got married in 1 summer (talk about a lot of dresses!$$$) and having tons-a-fun!

3 years ago-

age 23, living in Basin City we were foster parents at Bailie Memorial Youth Ranch, I was 1 month away from going to see ty graduate from basic training only talking to him 1x a week if I was lucky! and i was training for my first tri :)

4 years ago-

age 22, living in Cheney, doing my rec therapy internship, taking FUN classes like whitewater rafting, backpacking and getting ready to graduate!

5 years ago-

age 21, freshly married for 3 months, freshly LDS for a week longer then that, and enjoying a "fresh" start :)

8 years ago-

age 19, living in good-ol' pearce (i can't even remember how to spell that! wow!) hall at EWU and loving the college life probably a little too much!

10 years ago-

age 17, jr at prosser high, ty and i had been dating for over a year (seemed like so long then- now it's been 11 yrs- wow!) i was probably getting ready for prom and running track

(all i have to say is thank goodness for scrapbooks! there's no way i could have figured that all out without my trusty collection!)

WOW life has changed, i do have to say i must be all grown up! ;)

SO if you made it this far, my CHALLENGE to you is to go back and review YOUR last 10 years- where were YOU and what were YOU doing?!? i may even surprise you with a little treat :)

The dreaded spoon

Here are a few pics from the twinos first feeding with a spoon... it was quite an experience for us all as you can probably tell from their faces. Micah really didn't like the whole ordeal and still isn't digging the whole spoon in the mouth! Hallie did pretty good for the first few bites, but periodically gags instead of swallows- we were cracking up the whole time!





"Hallie Norris" (no relation to "CHUCK") "go ahead mom, try and put that spoon back in my mouth see what happens" "that's right... don't you know i invented giraffes, i upper cut a horse"




Micah "you lied to me" Thomson!" you said that was going to be happy food mommy!

Babywise and overthinking :)

So for those of you who haven't read it, I have sworn by the book "on becoming babywise" by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam. I really tried to implement the principles in the book with our twinos, which i did really well with until the last month.

A little background- I tend to over-think things A LOT and have to have a "plan" or "picture" of how things will go exactly in my mind before i do something so i'll spend minutes, hours, days, weeks and sometimes months contemplating something before i do it- it's just the way i work, i'm not a super quick thinker and it takes me time to process, which leads to frequent over thinking. It's a flaw and i'm not afraid to admit it (ok maybe a little, but i will) :)

So anyway back to the babywise- I got so comfortable with the 3 hour routine and feedings and was SO afraid they wouldn't sleep through the night anymore if i cut out the late night feeding, so after our trip to Utah i decided it was time to progress, the babies just weren't having it anymore. so the last week 1/2 i've been trying to move them closer to a 4 hour schedule and going to bed sooner. Micah was pretty easy to get on this schedule, Hallie with her teething and well Hallie being Hallie, was a little more difficult, she kept waking up early out of her naps and was hard to keep awake until yesterday! all of our work FINALLY paid off! Today was wonderful!! The both woke up around 7, slept wonderfully, were pleasant while they were awake, and were asleep by 8:30 tonight! it's totally what i've pictured and what i've wanted for so long i was just so afraid they would wake up early and i wouldn't get a full nights rest. so from now on, i'm going with the flow! and we can all keep praying and hoping those teeth will show themselves quickly and painlessly!

Here's a picture for the day and now it's off to sleep in our new bed :)

He's got skills

A tribute to my hilarious husband, who back in the fro days could totally (i don't know if this is a good thing!) pull off the "Napoleon Look"

He's pretty much the best Napoleon ever don't ya think!?!