IT'S TWINS!!

Don't get any crazy ideas, guys--that's just what I said to myself as I cracked the egg into the frying pan for breakfast yesterday. That's right. A double yolker is what I got. And it reminded me of--me.

I got curious and did a little research on twin yolks being found in one egg, and this is what I discovered, which I will so freely compare to myself.

1) 'A fertilized double yolker won't produce twins. The embryos can develop to term, but they can't hatch. A chick needs to push against the shell to break out of the egg. Two chicks can only push against each other and, apparently, this doesn't work.You can't play the hero and preform an emergency Cesarean either. Whereas a human baby is attached to a mother through an umbilical chord you can clamp, a chick is attached to the egg via a network of blood vessels that line the shell. One of these blood vessels will rupture if you try to break the shell. This means the whole system will be disrupted and the blood will drain. ' How sad. I mean, even though twins is the HARDEST thing I've ever done, I can't imagine my life without them. So a hen, even though she's produced two yolks, can never have twins. Poor hen. Really. Poor hen.

2) 'You'll find a double yolk in about 1 of 1000 eggs.' Wow. That's slim odds. And so it is with human twins. There are 31 twins born per 1,000 babies and with identical twins (which we have), only about three pairs of twins per 1,000 deliveries occur as a result of natural conception (which was our case). Guess we're good at defying odds.

3) 'Double yolks in an egg usually come from a young hen who is new to laying eggs and gets it wrong. Some older hens also lay them, a skill that is probably inherited.' So I'm either a young hen who can't get it right, or an old hen with SKILLZ (yeah, baby!)

4) 'Finding a double yolk means good luck (or that you are coming into money, dying or pregnant).' OK--just to get this one straight--there ain't no babies being made around here! I'll go for the money one. That sounds good!

So there you have it, folks. Go buy yourself some jumbo sized eggs and see if you can't get a twinner in there somewhere. C'mon, it'll be fun!

info found on www.claire-cameron.com

Bonus

Look what we found upon opening the Christmas boxes this year!

...And another!!

Labor of Love

I know that I'm 16 months late in posting this, but it needs be done. This is a labor of love that shant go unrecognized.

My dear sweet mother (bless her beating heart) decided that she would be an angel and make Nathan and Ryan's bedding. All of it. From scratch. Without a pattern. For them. To keep. And sleep on. And enjoy. Til they grow out of their cribs. Wow.

See, after I found out that I was pregnant with twins, my mother and I decided to start shopping for their crib bedding. And, I'm sorry, but the choices out there for boy bedding was not to be desired--by me (no offense to all of you teddy bear lovers out there). I couldn't find a thing that I really really liked. So my mother, in seeing my desperation to find something ADORABLE for my twin babies to come, decided that she would offer her services and make their bedding. She told me to decide what I wanted and that she would get started. I know, huh? Way too sweet. And this is the way my mother conducts every aspect of her life. Really.




Well, sadly for her, I knew exactly what I wanted. A puff quilt. In bold and vibrant colors. Has anyone out there made a puff quilt? These little babies take HOURS and HOURS of time to put together.

With an enlistment of help from Hannah and Sarah (her brave daughters) the puff quilts were assembled. Each square had to be sewn (almost closed--with a little gap to spare), then stuffed with batting, then sewn completely closed, then sewn to the square next to it, then the back had to be sewn onto the whole thing. Some of the squares had animals on them and so they all had to be arranged the right way (facing up, not sideways) and all of the squares had to be arranged beforehand to make sure they all looked good next to the square it was by (so that no two patterns were RIGHT next to each other). And I'm probably forgetting a step in there somewhere. I'm tellin' ya, if you wanna try making one of these things, I wouldn't recommend it.




Next the sheets needed to be bought and dyed their proper color. Cuz a white sheet just wasn't gonna cut it. Bold orange and yellow (with a backup of bold red and blue found amazingly at Babies R Us).
Next came the dust ruffle. Muslin was bought for the main part (that goes under the mattress) and then the ruffle polka-dotty material was attached to one, the bold stripes to the other. So cute!

After the dust ruffle came the bumper pads. I had previously bought some bumper pads and had given those to my mom so that she could sew over the actual bumper bad itself with the material that I wanted. And we can't forget the cute ties on the bumper pad that were added to attach it to the crib.


I wanted the sets to be similar, but not identical (even though the boys are!) So Nathan's crib skirt is opposite of Ryan's, along with the bumper pad. The room is adorable because this bedding is absolutely incredible. It's bright. Fun. And full of character. Just like my baby boys!


Nothing was left undone. Everything was perfect and made with such detail. Even a throw quilt was sewn to complete the whole set (seen above). Jungle animals on one side, polka-dots with red bows on the other.

Hours logged: hundreds
Price tag: hundreds (At least. I don't know if you could truly even put a price on it.)

Thank you, mom (grammie) for this labor of love. This will be something that the boys will always treasure, as will I. A priceless gift. A true labor of love.

Eat Your Heart Out

Am I a bad mother for catching my child with a mouth full of butter and letting her continue to eat to her heart's content? (With only a little bit of, 'Oh, Addie, that really is nasty. You shouldn't do that.')

Where did she learn this anyway? It's not like I sat down with a tub of butter one day and said, "Addie, watch this. This is the best! Mommy loves to eat butter straight from the tub. C'mon, give it a try!"

No, in fact, I'm quite the opposite (just ask Ben). If there is anything light, diet, fat free, low calorie, half fat, or aspartame-y, I'm all over it.

So wherever she picked up this habit, I'm gonna let her keep it. For she is just a twig anyway. She needs to get a little meat on dem bones.

If she is 16, obese, and continuing to eat tubs-full of butter, then I will probably do something to stop her. But until then--eat your heart out, Addie. Eat your heart out.

Why Will Boys Always Be Boys?

So in the last little while my boys have been testing my patience with climbing. It started out easy with this:

(on top of the dishwasher door)

Then we went to this:

(on top of Addie's bed)

(Climbing up the step stool to get to the trampoline)

Then this:

(climbing up the stairs to get to the slide)

(on top of the couch)

(kitchen chair)

And then it started getting bad when it went to this:

(on top of Addie's booster in the middle of the room)

(on top and on the corner of the couch)

(on a toy artist's table in Addie's bedroom)

And the worst yet:

(on top of the table--believe me, my heart jumped out of my chest on this one)

And I wonder where they get it:

notice hiding girl in background..

Naso-pharyngeal blah blah blah

GUESS WHO IS SUPER BUMMED today after learning that my Celine Dion tickets have been postponed til February? What the heck is this so-called infection anyway?

Is this just an excuse for a sore throat? I've never even heard of this! C'mon Celine, don't let me down!

Arrgh..I was so looking forward to it. Guess I'll just have to wait.

In their words...

AEG Live, the promoter of Celine Dion's Taking Chances World Tour, has rescheduled the artist's Denver concert at Pepsi Center, originally scheduled for Wednesday, November 19, 2008, while Celine recuperates from a recurrent naso-pharyngeal infection which was further complicated by inflamed vocal chords.

Her physician has instructed her to refrain from singing in order to completely recover.

Celine's concert has been rescheduled for Tuesday, February 24, 2009.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Well, I'm back from my annual girly 'Time Out' trip. And to say the least, it was splendid. My dear sweet mother REALLY knows how to host an event and this year was no exception. My sisters, myself, and my mom headed to Estes Park, Colorado for a 4 day, 3 night trip. It was a little tricky getting all of the babysitters organized for each day that we were gone, but it was so worth it because NO NURSING BABIES were in tow.

Or any children for that matter. (I believe in miracles). Not that I don't love my children (because I do), but it's not like I ever get a break around here (because I don't) :)

So because you are all dying to know what we did, I will give you a complete rundown:

Day 1 (Wednesday, Oct. 29): Leave Cheyenne at 3pm. Pick up Sarah and Rachel at Denver airport around 5:30pm and make it to the Denver Temple for an Endowment session at 7pm. Afterwards, a trip to the Cheesecake Factory. YUM!!! Head to our Estes Park cabin after dinner and roll in around 2am. Wow. Aren't we late nighters!! And we're just gettin' started!

(outside the Denver temple)

Day 2 (Thursday, October 30): Wake up late, take our time getting ready and head into Loveland to catch the 2:45pm movie 'Fireproof' (recommend it). Didn't make it in time, so we ended up shopping at the shops there until the 5:30pm showing. Hit 'Noodles and Company' for dinner and then started back to our cabin in Estes Park (about an hour and half drive back up the canyon).

Day 3 (Friday, October 31--Happy Halloween!): RELAX day. We stayed in our jammies all day and scrapbooked, made chocolate suckers, painted nails (not in that order), etched our names into pans that my mom brought for us, and made a block with vinyl lettering that said, 'Eternally Together, our Family is Forever' (the theme of our 'time out' trip this year). Lovely.

(Rachel scrapbooking away)

(What the finished product looked like after we etched our names in pans. We'll never worry which pan is ours at the next church function!)

Day 4 (Saturday, November 1): Pack up to leave our beautiful cabin, take some girly photos, shop the quaint shops in Estes Park for a while, eat at Poppys (YUMMY) and then depart to Fort Collins and shop there before we head to the dinner theater 'White Christmas'. We finally rolled back into Cheyenne around midnight Saturday night and were exhausted, but had a SPLENDID time and are all looking forward to 'TIME OUT' 2009!!

(The inside of our cabin--SO CUTE!)

(Mary at 5 months pregnant with number 6! Lookin' good!)

(SISTERS: Hannah and me)


(Outside the cabin)

(dinner at Poppys)

(Let the show begin! Waiting for 'White Christmas' to start)

Thank you Momma Peterson for such a wonderful time-out! You are amazing and we loved every minute that we were together as we renewed our friendship and love for each other. Three cheers to you!!

(Disclaimer: All kids were fine while moms were gone and now that we know they really don't need us, we'll make it twice as long next year!) Whatdoya think, Ben?

Props to Waldo

I blog these photos, not because we had a spectacular Halloween (I was out of town and the kids didn't even get to go trick-or-treating), but because Ben spent 3+ hours making his Waldo shirt (red ducktape) and hat (well, the pom pom on the hat) for our ward Halloween party.


Ben thought that his costume was AWESOME because all of the youth came up to him that night and yelled out, 'I found you, Waldo!' He worked hard for such recognition, and for this reason alone, he should be proud that his efforts paid off:)

Don't we look like a hodge-podge of characters? A 50's dancing queen, a dalmation, Waldo, and Thing 1 and Thing 2 (minus the blue hair). Maybe next year I'll come up with something a little more creative. Any ideas?

I'd Like to Bear My Testimony

So Addie walked up to the wood-burning stove we have in our basement and started talking 'at' it. I wasn't sure what she was doing until I really listened..

"I'd like to bear my testimony, I know the church is true. I'm thankful for Jesus. I love the gospel. We're thankful for all that we have. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

What? Did she just bear her testimony to the stove?

Pretty clever when you actually notice that the knob to open the flue looks just like a microphone.

Now that's one smart cookie, with a pretty darn cute testimony.

It Was Finally Time

Yup, I decided that Ryan's hair was getting a little too scraggly, so I took the clippers to his head last Friday and we ended up with this. Ben actually wanted me to leave his hair long because it was really easy to tell who was who (with one having short hair and the other long). In fact, he came home from work, swept up Ryan in his arms to look at his new 'do', and then turned to me and said, 'this is Ryan, right?'

Not too shabby, eh?

I'm pretty proud of the end result because this little guy's head was constantly moving! The job was not easy!

I tried SOOO hard to get these guys to look at the camera at the same time. To no avail, it did NOT work. I wanted to see if you thought they looked identical. I don't think so but I also spend LOTS of time with them and am able to see their different personalities shine through. The above picture is Ryan and Nathan is below.


And one of them both in the tub. Cute little buddies!