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!

Simple Conversation

(Enter Addie with a long sleeve dress on)

Addie: Mom, I'm cold.

me: Okay, hunny. That dress looks like it's pretty warm, but you can change if you want to and put on something warmer.

Addie: Okay.

(Exit Addie)

(Enter Addie again, 5 minutes later, with a short sleeve shirt on and a miniskirt)

Addie: That's better.

She makes me smile...

(These pictures were taken at the Cheyenne Botannical Gardens. It's such a pretty place this time of year!!)

Enough About Me, Let's Talk about You. What Do You Like About Me?

20 years ago I was,
1. 11 years old
2. in 6th grade
3. seriously, who can remember that far back?

10 years ago I,
1. graduated from BYU
2. was called to serve a mission in Adelaide, Australia
3. recently returned from a BYU study abroad trip to the Holy Land

5 years ago I,
1. was not even married!
2. was teaching 1st grade to a bunch of 5-6 year olds at Orem Elementary
3. bought a piano and had it hauled up to the 3rd floor of the condo complex that I lived in (now I just need to learn how to play)!

3 years ago I was,
1. celebrating the birth of my daughter Adelaide
2. living in Orem, Utah in the condo Ben and I bought together when we got married
3. trying to convince Ben that we didn't need to start having another child yet

1 year ago I,
1. gave birth to twin boys and my oldest had just barely turned TWO!
2. had just moved from our condo in Orem to our first home in West Jordan!
3. made another best friend

So far this year I,
1. have moved from West Jordan, Utah to Cheyenne, Wyoming
2. have seen Nathan and Ryan turn 1!!
3. witnessed my older sister Sarah get married in the Salt Lake City Temple (she was beautiful!)

Yesterday I,
1. turned 31 and had a party with family to celebrate (well, as much as you can party on the Sabbath)
2. watched conference
3. got tickets from Ben (my bday present) to see Celine Dion perform LIVE in Denver on November 19th (yay!)

Today I,
1. am doing LOTS of laundry
2. got up early and ran 3 miles!
3. am happy because the boys are napping as I type this

Tomorrow I will,
1. take my kids to the library
2. get up early and exercise again
3. wait and see what happens!

p.s. Thanks to all of you who called or emailed me yesterday on my big day. It meant a lot and I surely do luv and 'ppreciate ya.

Mirror Images and Walking

So, we are finally seeing the reason behind the ultra saturated-with-drool clothing that has been happening lately. And we discovered something interesting about it along the way.

Ryan and Nathan are both getting a top tooth in--finally. You'd think by 14 months they'd have a full mouth of choppers. Nope. Just the bottom two and now one on top. It's interesting to note, though, that Ryan's tooth on top is on the left side and that Nathan's tooth is coming in on the right side. How crazy is that?

Ryan's top tooth coming in on the left (sorry about the boogie in the nose)

Nathan's top tooth coming in on the right (it looks like I'm inflicting pain on these boys but I'm not:)

I guess it's true how people have been telling me that identical twins often mirror each other in certain aspects (one parts hair on left side, one on right; one rights with right hand, other with left; etc...) It'll be fascinating to see if this carries on as the boys get older. I've been watching to see if one twin will be a lefty and one will be right handed, but I think it's too early to tell. They still switch on and off quite frequently.

Anyway, speaking of changes, the boys have officially started walking! Ryan actually started about 2 weeks ago, and Nathan is now wanting to try it out. It's so cute to see these guys cruise around the house. They are getting really good at it!

Ryan

Nathan being a little bit more hesitant about it

Good job, buddies, on all of the advancements you're making. We love you and are proud of you (x2)!!

So That's What It's Like...

Last night we had the missionaries over for dinner. We had a nice time visiting, but then came time for them to go. They asked for a ride to their next appointment (apologetically, I might add, because Ben was the only one that could drive them due to mission rules and the missionaries could clearly tell that I needed Ben's help at that point.) There were dinner dishes to clean up and it was bedtime for the kids as they were showing it big time. Addie was huddled up next to me because she had fallen and gotten hurt, Nathan was hanging onto me because he was ultimately just plain ol' tired and Ryan (thankfully) was cruising around the house with his little walker. Out of desperation, I said, "Do you mind taking Nathan with you?" "Nope, I don't mind." (BLESS YOU, my dear sweet husband). So Ben grabbed Nathan, walked out the door with the missionaries, and I got busy cleaning up dinner dishes (as soon as Addie was okay to let me let her go).


Ryan saw that I had the dishwasher open and came crawling over (the twins think this means an invitation to come and pull everything out and onto the floor. What good helpers they are!) and Addie became interested in looking at pictures that were sitting on the table. Ryan saw a clean, empty sippy cup and its lid and began the task of putting the lid on the cup. This kept him entertained for quite some time. Addie was sitting quietly at the table, Ryan was busily working, and for one brief moment in time, I stopped. I stopped and realized that this is what it would be like to have only two children. Now mind you, it's not that I don't love my children and not that I don't think twins are the cutest thing ever, but I thought to myself, 'I could totally do this.' I know it wouldn't always be calm with just two children in the house, but the intensity level seemed to decrease by one million just because one baby was gone with sweet hubby (I heart you!) Wow. It was the most amazing feeling.


Sometimes in the craziness of having 3 children in a time span of 26 months, I often wonder what it would be like to have experienced it the way that most people do. One baby at a time. That I will never truly know. With twins, one plus one does not equal two. The degree of difficulty and intensity becomes exponential (remember learning about that stuff LONG TIME AGO?) And it is truly only something that one can understand if they have been through it/are going through it. I often hear people tell me: "I have two kids that are only 16 months apart so I totally know what you're going through." Sorry. Nope, ya don't. Not even close. But I guess that it DOES mean that our happinesses and joys are exponentialized (is that a word?), too. And for that I am grateful because we have some crazy good times at our house.
So, to sum up this whole experience for me that happened within a mere 2 minutes, I decided that I love my children with all my heart (always have), wouldn't want things to be any other way, but that I will be having Ben take trips with just one baby more often. Usually I send Addie with him and the twins stay home with me, but that experience last night put a whole new perspective on things.
Ryan, your turn with daddy is next.

What do you get when 3 Mormon families find out there is unlimited FREE CORN in Greeley, Colorado?

2000 EARS later...


(The baby corn asks his mama corn: Where do baby corns come from? Mama says "I told ya before, the stalk brought ya.")

THAT'S RIGHT!! FREE CORN was what it was. Whatever you could gather and take home with you from the church farm in Colorado. So that's what we did! The Petersons, Gridleys, and Webers all piled into my dad's classy 15 seater van at 6:30am and headed out for Greeley. (DARN IT, I stayed home with the twins because they can't walk yet and it wouldn't have been fun for ANY of us if they had come, now would it?).

(Two corn cobs were walking downtown and the first cob noticed that they were being followed by another strange cob everywhere they went. The first cob whispered to the second cob, "Don't look know but I think we are being followed by a stalker.")

SO THE TACTIC WAS to gather as many ears of corn in a laundry basket as possible, bring the full basket to the 'shucking' spot-where all ears were shucked of their husks-and then go out and get more ears of corn until your poor body aches so much that you can't move, OR until you get so sick of looking at corn that you never want to see another kernel in your entire lifetime.

(How is an ear of corn like an army? It has lots of kernels.)

This gathering and shucking process went on til about noon and then it was back to Cheyenne where more fun was in store. How many ears were gathered, you ask? Well, how about 2000? Which equaled 50 white garbage bags full of 30 ears of corn. Now, no one (in their right mind) can eat that much fresh corn before it goes bad, so the next job was to get all of those little hairs off the corn that really can be quite annoying (especially when you're dealing with 2000 ears!), blanch the corn for 2 minutes, immediately dump the corn in cold water and let it sit there for a few minutes, then take the ear of corn out and cut off the corn from the cob, then bag the corn, label it, and stick it in the freezer.

What did the farmer say when he picked up the corn? "Aw, shucks!"

That's a lot to do. Thank goodness there were lots of us to help (I came out to help after everyone got back from Greeley. Don't think I completely took the easy way out:) So we assigned jobs to make it easier: 1)The hair remover: Bruce and Jacob. 2)The cooker: Mary, Joseph, and I even helped with that one. 2) The cooler: Hannah. 3) The shaver: Ben, Jacob, Hannah and myself. 4) The bagger: my dad, me, and Joseph. Where is my mom in all of this you may ask--she just so happened to be conveniently out of town that weekend. Sorry mom, you really missed a good time :0) In all fairness to her, though, she was helping Rachel's family move into their new home so she was busy busy in Tennessee instead of Wyoming.

What did the baby corn say to the mom corn? Where is my pop corn?!

By about 4pm, everyone was really getting tired, but we weren't even close to being done. The twins were even helping (see center photo of collage) but to no avail, those bags of corn just NEVER seemed like they were going away. Finally, with persistance and the evening hours upon us, we ended our corn plight at 8pm. That was a 14 hour day and we really didn't stop unti it was over!!

What do old people and farmers have in common? They’ve both got corns!

So, anyone want some corn? We officially have 200 quart size baggies in the freezer full of corn. I'm thinking we won't need to be doing this next year. Whadoyathink?

How much does it cost to buy corn from a pirate? A buck an ear!

(Hope you enjoyed the 'corny' jokes. Just thought I'd 'shuck' those in there!)