Jack and Olivia

This post is sure a long time coming. Sorry about the lack of pictures. Just keep your expectations low:).

Jack and Olivia are now 4 months old. I am not sure where to start in describing the last four months of our lives. I will start by saying that it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be and that I am glad the the new born days have an end.

They are now sleeping through the night and they only feed 5 times a day! They started with feeding every two and a half hours through the day and night. I tried nursing them but I got super sore. I only lasted two weeks then went to formula. That was the best decision I made.

The key to twins is learning to feed them together(sometimes this can get real hectic) and keeping them on the same schedule. Feeding them at the same time is something we have had to get use to. I just kept telling Dave that we can do hard things.

Jack and Olivia were born on October 11th. Now all of my kids are born on the 11th of their month. I had C-sections with all my kids so I had a little wiggle room of the date to schedule their births on.

Jack weighed 5 lbs and Olivia 5 lbs 4 oz. I had them at 36 weeks. They were both healthy with no problems. This was such a blessing. When they came home from the hospital they both weighed around 4 lbs 11 oz. They were so tiny. We didn't have any preemie clothes for Jack and the new born clothes were too big.

Their first night home Dave and I didn't get any sleep, literally. I had so much anxiety that I could not sleep for the next two days. That was the worst experience of my life. After this we worked hard to get them on a good schedule and things got a whole lot better.

Last month we blessed them. Jack was named Jack Phelps. This is after my Grandpa Jack Phelps Balling. Phelps comes from a line of family that were members of the LDS Church with Joseph Smith. We had originally had the middle name of Johnathon. I liked the name but was not super set on it. We had come up woth it in the hospital. Dave felt that he should use the name Phelps so in the blessing he changed it. It was a bit of a suprise but I did not mind. My grandpa was thrilled. He and my grandma have dune so much to help me out.

Jack is such a smily guy. He is a happy boy and it is so much fun to make him really laugh. We haven't been able to get Olivia to laugh like Jack. He also has a flat head. It is so flat that he may have to wear a helmet. He is also our spitter-upper. His clothes are always wet no matter how often I change him. He seems to be an easy going boy but we will see.

We named Olivia, Olivia Belle. Belle is after Dave's grandma Mary Belle Hardie. Her name was not changed at her blessing.

Olivia is a strong girl. She loves to stand. We cannot get Jack to stand and it is hard to get Olivia to sit. She can also roll from her stomach to her back and then back to her stomach. Jack is not close to rolling. She also likes to talk. If you talk to her she will talk right back. It is so much fun having a girl!

We have really enjoyed having twins. They are starting to interact with each other and it is so much fun to see. It has been a whole lot of work taking care of them but so worth it! They have brought a peace into our home and I know I am a better person because of them. I feel so lucky to have them.

Here are some pictures. Enjoy.

Hangin In There

I am now 32 weeks along! This is only about 7 months, but for twins this is a pretty good accomplishment. My doctor is going to deliver me on October 11th. This is just four weeks away. He is not sure I am going to make it though because I have already started to dialate a bit. The great news is that the babies are both doing great. They should be weighing just under 4 pounds each. They are going to be gaining just under half a pound a week for the next four weeks. I have an ultrasound this Friday where they will give me an estimate on how much they each weigh.

I am huge! My doctor says that I measure larger than a full term pregnancy if it were a single baby. I get comments all the time like "You look like you are ready to pop." I feel like I am going to pop.

This pregnancy has not been too bad until I hit about 26 weeks. This is when my lower back began to hurt and each day it just kept getting worse until I could barely walk. It has been so painful! Tylenol is the only thing I can take, but it does not help at all. Because of this I have not been able to clean my house and make meals. We have hired some neighbor girls to come by and clean the house which has been wonderful. We have also been given tons of freezer meals. These things have been life savers! Other than the back pain, it now seems that everything else hurts now too. I knew that the month of September was going to be a hard one. I am just trying to survive at this point. Dave, keeps reminding me to take it only one day at a time. If I look too far ahead it just seems too overwhelming. At this point I am convinced that it will be easier taking care of two newborn babies than it is being pregnant with two babies! Seriously. I am also super excited to see these little babies. I just hope that they will be OK!

I have been working on the nursery for quite awhile and it now is done. I was going for a calming room since this is where they will hopefully be spending a lot of their time sleeping. I hope you like it.

It was very important to me to have a comfortable recliner since I will spend a lot of nights in this. This is actually the chair I have been sleeping in lately because of heart burn and it hurts my hips to sleep on my side.
As you can see, we want to name the girl Olivia. If her name ends up being different, then I will have to do some redecorating. This is the crib Nate and Paul used. It was a bit dinged up but Dave painted it and it now looks bran new. For the bedding, I could not find what I wanted at the stores so I sewed the sheet and the crib skirt.
Here is Jack's crib. We were given this crib, but it had a lot of marks on it. Dave sanded and restained it. It looks bran new too. I also sewed the bedding to match the girls.

A closer look at the crib sheets I sewed.

For the changing table, Dave painted it and I sewed the curtain and some diaper pad covers.

There was no room for the dresser, so that had to go into the closet. You can also see some of the girl clothes that I have had so much fun shopping for.

I now feel pretty much ready to have these two babies. It may sound crazy but I am really excited for it all.

Expecting Numbers 3 AND 4!!

That's right, I am pregnant with twins! I thought I would share a picture of my rapidly growing belly. This is something I would never usually do since I do not feel very photogenic and am super self conscious when pregnant, but how often do you get to see someone pregnant with twins. Please do not judge.

I already feel self conscious of the fact that I have gained a TON of weight, my hair being too blond from dying it last week, and my pillows being out of order.

Right now I am 19 weeks or 4 and 1/2 months. Each week I get noticeably bigger. This is the time, if I were pregnant with one baby, when I would regularly be showing a small baby bump. I feel like this picture does not do justice to how I feel. I feel huge. I feel as if I am at least six or seven months along. I am already having a hard time sleeping. I have to go to the bathroom all the time and I struggle when I have to bend over. I still have 18 weeks to go since they will deliver me no later than 37 weeks. I am really hoping that the babies and I can make it.

The great thing about this month is that I found out the genders of my babies. One is a boy and the other a girl. I am super excited about this. It just feels right and I am excited to have a girl since I will have three boys now. I also am starting to feel them move. My doctor said that they are measuring 8 inches from their head to their toes.

You may ask, "what is it like being pregnant with twins?" The main two things are that I am very tired and very hungry. Is it double the fatigue and hunger? All I know is that it definitely exceeds my previous pregnancies. I am so tired that I struggle to get up in the mornings until the hunger pains get too strong to fight. I have to take many breaks throughout the day, and Nate has become my little helper. He helps by getting me things when I am too tired to stand. Also, if anyone ever wants to take me out to eat, I greatly appreciate it. Hint. Hint.

Everything is going very well overall. I just hope that it continues. The whole family is getting excited. Nate really wanted a little sister and Paul a little brother. They are both excited which makes me even more so. Dave is most excited with the fact that I am definitely going to need his help during the night shift after these babies arrive. Ha Ha!

A Little Bit of Everything

My blog posts tend to be a feast or famine. Sorry about that. Here is a whole bunch of stuff from my latest picture upload that I thought I would share.

This past April we went on a Mexican Riviera cruise with my entire family! It was fun having our boys with us and they sure had tons of fun.

We did lots of playing at the beach, (Paul is scared of the water and freaks out if it touches his feet)
watching TV, (Nate had his face painted like a pirate at the kids center)

eating lots of food,

sand swimming.

Paul turned three while we were on the cruise. He had a party on the boat. Here the kids are playing duck-duck-goose.

Here is all of his gifts. He wears the cow boy boots along with a cow boy hat, that he got from the Hardie grandparents, every single day. I am not exaggerating.

The chefs' made him an awesome birthday cake and they all came out to sing him

'Happy Birthday". He felt so special.

He had a gigantic piece for himself, but he only ate all of the frosting.

For Easter, our City did a big Easter egg hunt. The Easter bunny was there so Nate got a picture with him;

Paul was terrified of the bunny and would not even go close to him. He does look a bit scary but Paul is scared of everything.

We went with my grandparents to their cabin at Bear Lake. I love this place. It was practically my second home growing up. I have probably been there over a hundred times.

My dad went to China with his students for a couple of weeks so my sister and I stayed with my mom. My boys sure loved spending time with their cousin Sam. They had a lot of fun playing in the hot tub.

They fell a sleep watching a movie.

Nate started playing t-ball this spring. It is a lot of fun watching all of the little boys learn to play base ball. It makes Dave and I feel like our little boy is growing up so fast. Here is a video of him batting.

My Goofy Boys!!

We just finished listening to General Conference and here is the scene at our house.

The boys in my life have all done some pretty funny/goofy things lately that I would like to share.

Dave has been playing this free game we got on our ipod where a small fish tries to eat the other small fish without being eaten by the bigger fish. He has really gotten into it since Nate is always begging him to play it so he can watch him. They have a good time together with their fish game. Also, Dave got me pretty good on April Fool's day. We had a date planned, so I got the babysitter and everything all in order. Dave was to leave work no later than 5:30 and get some pizza for us to have for dimmer. We were going to be pushing it close on time with all our other plans so Dave really needed to be on time. Sorry to say this Dave, but his work very often makes him late! So I called just before and stressed to please not be late. It was getting close to the time when he was to get home with the pizza and I hadn't heard from him yet. At this time I was exhausted and very hungry from getting everything done around the house. I called him worried and asked where he was. He said that he had just left work. 45 min. behind schedule and plans ruined. I was super upset, no super, super upset, and I started to tell him just how upset I was. Just then the garage door opened and there was Dave with the pizza. I started crying and laughing at the same time knowing that he got me good but still feeling upset about him being late. Sorry about the lengthy explanation, but I had to do my side justice.

Nate and Paul have been putting on all of these roller skating pads that they have and then taking all the cushions off the couch and putting them in a pile. They then "fight" (in a non-hurting way) and do all these crazy moves while diving into the cushions. Another day they got all dressed up like this to "fight" each other. I think all this fighting stuff has come form a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie that we found at the DI. My boys are real goofy but they sure make me laugh a lot. It snowed again today!

Nate has said some pretty funny things lately. We got Nate all the children's scriptures with all the pictures. He has really enjoyed reading them. Right now he is on the Old Testament. When Dave first started this book, he was trying to explain to Nate the time period it covers. He said things like: The stories in this book are really, really old...older than Jesus. It starts when the world was first created. Later we were talking about how Dave just turned 30 years old. Nate asked how old that was and we told him it was really old. He responded, "Is it as old as the Old Testament?"

Later Dave was reading the Old Testament to him and there were animal sacrifices. He explained to Nate why they did this and that we don't do them anymore today. He told him

that we are to sacrifice other things like our time by helping out at church. Nate asked, "So we sacrifice good things like a cooked turkey?"

Paul has such a funny personality. When ever he first wakes up or gets hurt, he talks in this super high squeaky voice. In this video, he just skinned his knees for the first time ever. It was pretty traumatic for him and after ward he would not walk for a while and had to be carried everywhere. I tried to get him to walk and he would just take these tiny baby steps. It was so funny. I wish I could have gotten a video of that.

Update (I'm back!!!!)

It's been awhile, but now that things have seemed to settle down a bit and I got a new camera, I am ready to start blogging. Here are some pictures of the boys and what they have been up to.

Paul has become very particular about what he wears. He loves to wear BYU shirts with boots every day! It is quite the struggle to get him to wear something else. We have four BYU shirts, thanks to Grandpa Hardie, that he goes through until they are all dirty. He gets pretty upset when all his BYU shirts are dirty and has to wear something else. The boots are an every day occurrence. He use to wear his boots without sock and it made his feet smell awful! It was real bad when he would take them off while we were in the car. We would all complain and Paul would have a big smile on his face. He loves for people to smell his sticky feet. Now it is a rule to wear socks. My neighbors just laugh when they see Paul in his BYU shirt and boots.

Nate has been learning to clean around the house. Dave had him clean all the base boards in our house and he did them all! It was funny to see how much he got into it. He has also been pretty good at cleaning his room and play room. He is sure growing up fast!

Nate and Paul have become great friends. They play very well together. They love to fight with these foam swords. It is pretty funny to watch them. They try and do all these cool moves.

Even though there is snow on the ground in this picture, it was a real warm day. The kids played at our neighbors on their driveway and about 10 other kids showed up to play. Everyone is anxious to get outside after a long winter. It is so much fun having so many kids around to play with!

Nate can really get around good on his four wheeler. Paul likes to catch rides from Nate to the play ground.

For St. Patrick's Day we had green oatmeal for breakfast.

Nate in his green shirt.

HALLOWEEN

Halloween was so fun this year. It started out with a package from Grandma Hardie. The kids always get so excited when they get a package from Grandma. We then did a trick or treat at Dave's work. The kids got so much candy and they had a lot of fun showing everyone their costumes along with their moves. Then we went trick or treating on Saturday. Here in Utah it is just understood that Halloween is not on Sunday but Saturday. The kids went with their cousins at my parents house. Dave stayed at the house sick with food poisoning. It was bad. Nate also had a fever, but with the help of some children's Tylenol he would not be left behind. We had a lot of fun and now we are loaded up with candy. I love candy!

The kids were so excited about their costumes. We had them a month early and it was always a fun activity to get dressed up.

Paul was a tiger.

He had a good roar to go with his costume.

Nate was super excited to be spider man.

Everybody loved to see his moves.

Dave taught them this song.