4th of July

Me and Kenners in our 4th attire. Since they had lots of 4th outfits thanks to grandma's and aunt's they got to wear them over the whole weekend, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. They were very festiv this year. The Thompsons and the Endsleys

We really do owe our marriage to our friends Adam and Ashley. Adam was Curtis' roommate and Ashley was my mission companion. We met at their wedding luncheon. It's crazy that less than 4 years later we were able to get together with our combined 4 kids. We really have missed them since they moved.

While they were here visiting, we invited the old game night crew over(minus Josh, Megan, and JP--you were missed) and had a BBQ for the 4th. We have a group picture, but my camera battery was dead so I don't have one yet.

It was the first time we hosted a BBQ because it was the first time we had a grill of our very own. Curtis' parents gave us money to put towards one when Curtis got his masters degree...we spent it on our cruise instead. Then I read a book by Dave Ramsey, The Total Money Makeover. It's one I would really reccomend and it's changed our spending habits. The new joke is asking "is that Dave Ramsey approved" before any purchase. The grill we aquired (complete with hornet's nest and a hole in the bottom that allows black gew to drip out) IS Dave Ramsely approved. We are super excited for many memories to be made with our grill.

Our Babies

It's hard for us to believe that our babies aren't always going to be small enough to fit in the same crib or that they will one day crawl away when we put them on a blanket and try to take a picture of them. We are enjoying (almost) every minute.

Cooper is getting so much more personality every day. He loves to eat his toes, be tickled, get tossed in the air, swing, he gets excited about every new toy, he reexplores the exerssaucer every time he gets in it, and he LOVES his mommy.

Kennedy is still super calm. She has a few favorite stuffed animals, she loves to cuddle, her smile is killer, and she's got eyes that could melt anybodys heart.

5 Months Old

Yes, this is being posted a little bit late, but I took this picture of them on their 5 month birthday. I love the outfits and I love their faces.

Youth Conference

Curtis went to youth conference so the babies and I decided it would be a great time to visit some friends and family. I'm terrible about taking pictures, but here's a couple highlights.

I got super lucky! Curtis' brother and his wife had their baby while I was up there. It was fun to hold such a tiny baby and even harder to believe that our babies were even a few pounds smaller when they were born.

We had a BBQ German style at my dad's house for his birthday. There's nothing like a brat w/mustard on a summer day. Cooper loved the experience too. His favorite part was the swing though.

Some people think you can't fit 3 car seats in a car. We did! I fear we might have been part of the statistic that __% of car seats are installed incorrectly, but we got to our destination and only had to take one car to do it. It worked, I just hope we don't have another baby before we can afford a bigger car because this could be a pain.

Addison May

It blows me away to think that next month our little Addie would have been 2! We still miss her and what could have been, but the emptyness of losing our baby has been filled. We have been so blessed with Cooper and Kennedy. For memorial day we took them to her grave. I guess this makes our first official complete family photo. We love you Addison.

Best Job Ever

I can't think of a job I've ever had that I've done exceptionally well at. Just ask my brother-in-law. He was my supervisor when I worked at a call center in college. Speaking of college, I was just an average student. I've had a bunch of callings too and I'm pretty sure I could have done a LOT better with all of them. I served a mission, but did nothing out of the ordinary. The list could go on and on.

Sometimes I feel bad about all of the above, but lets not dwell on the past because somehow I've tricked myself into thinking that I am an awesome mom. Some might say I set my expectations way too low. For example, most weeks, I don't make it out of the house more than 3 times (that's changing now that it's warmer and the babies are older), but here are a few things I do do. I exercise... probably 4 times a week. I make dinner pretty much every day and it's usually ready when Curtis gets home. I go grocery shopping and usually even look online to find out where the sales are. I am still nursing 2 babies after 5 months!!! They get bathed regularly. We play, we laugh, we go on walks. On any given day, the house is usually cleaned up at some point in time. I change a few diapers each day. I do lots of laundry! I might even start cleaning the bathrooms regularly again.

There is, however, one thing I feel really bad about. I am not documenting this perfect life very well. I could blame it on being so busy with two new babies, but that's not true. They've been sleeping through the night for a while now. I put them down between 7:30 and 8:00 and they'll usually sleep until 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning. I do have some time to do it if I really wanted to. The truth is, I still don't have a wedding book put together or mission pictures for that matter. For some reason, it's just a job I never want to tackle. So for now, I guess this blog is all we have. I will try to make updates more regular.

[Note to grandmas: please don't get your hopes up. I said I will try.]

Firsts

While we were enjoying the sun in St. George, we (I) decided it would be a good time to Kenna Baby for her first swim. Actually, I just wanted to show her off in her cute swimming suit. We haven't found one for Cooper yet so he stayed inside with dad. The water was too cold though so I just splashed water from the hot tub on her and called it good.
Say good bye to Coopers over-the-ears hair. He got a "hairs cut!"

At first, he liked the buzzing of the clippers...

...by the end he was MAD!

He was actually too mad to get a good "after" shot. Here he is a few weeks later. He's in his bouncer and very happy having just finished his first bowl of rice cereal. He really did eat it right up. Maybe he's been ready for it for a while. It's just an adventure I wasn't ready to start. All I have to say is I'm glad Kenna Baby isn't ready yet. I'm just going to worry about one baby at a time.

Our good friends Adam and Ashley were visiting from Arizona. Their little girl is just about 3 months older than our babies and she has teeth. They were all laying on a blanket together. We thought it was so cute and then the screaming started. Katie grabbed Cooper's finger and chomped down. It all happened too fast to stop and we were left with a very upset baby. I figure he needs to get used to it because pretty soon his sister is going to have teeth and who knows what she's going to want to do with them.
Ashley's parents had twins too. They are 30 now, but they still have the magic touch.

Mother's Day Adventure

I'm not sure why this picture turned, but I can't get it to turn back. This is how Kenna Baby and Cooper Dooper spend a lot of their day. They really like to hang out next to each other on a blanket. They tend to grab each other's hands or arms.
We went to visit our families on Mother's Day weekend. As usual, we didn't take enough pictures. Here is one of Grandma Thompson. I'm pretty sure she loves being a grandma.

We were also able to stop and see my grandma. It was the first time she was able to see the babies. Here she is with Kennedy...

...and this is her with Cooper.

One boy, on girl.

Look at those eyes...they probably know that their mom is going to do next.
Yea, I know. He makes a pretty ugly baby girl. It's a good thing he's a super cute baby boy!

Pictures

We had some 3 Month pictures taken of our babies a while ago (I know...they're already 4 months old now). I think the pictures speak for themselves. We love our little babies.

How would you handle this?

Our babies are 4 months old now and I would say doing quite well. They are growing like crazy. Their smiles are heart melting. They are sleeping 6-9 hours a night (Cooper is usually closer to 6 and Kennedy is usually closer to 9). I just have one dilemma that if adjusted, I think would make all the difference in the world.

We're more or less following the "babywise" program. They eat, then they're awake, then they sleep and the cycle repeats itself every three hours except at night. They really do keep themselves on this schedule for the most part these days and it's wonderful. The problem I'm having is that they seem to think their night starts after their 4:00 or 5:00 feeding. Babywise says just wake them up for their next feeding and put them right back to bed if they don't want to stay awake. That is what we end up doing because they are SO sleepy. What we end up with though is one or two babies who think it's morning time at say 3:30-4:30 AM. If we could change these times from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM, mommy would be in heaven.

I've tried the following:
Feeding them when they wake up and putting them right back to bed. They're usually pretty happy. They just kick and talk until they fall asleep about an hour later. Thismorning, however, they were very mad and only went back to sleep for a second.
Going on a walk after their 4:00 PM feeding until they eat at 7:00. This meant they didn't get a real nap, they were a little bit grumpy for the most part, and were super tired when we got back. They actually slept pretty well that night. Come to think of it, maybe I'll try that one again.

We've got a few other tricks up our sleeves, but I thought I would ask for suggestions from any of you who might have any fresh ideas.

Is it just me or...

are there some extreme similarities here? This is a picture of my family when I was about a month old. All growing up, everyone told me I looked just like my mom. Now that I also have my own replica, I bet I could put on a black dress and reenact the left side of this picture. CRAZY!

Our Biggest Loser

You might have logged on hoping for pictures of babies...keep scrolling and you'll find a bunch of them.

This post is to invite you to joing our biggest loser challenge. My sister and I decided it would be fun to get a group together. We can each put in $15 and the winner takes all (or if there are a bunch of people who join we could split it between 2 or 3 people). It goes from May 10th to Sept. 10th. Get me your e-mail address and I will send you the rules. It's super simple and should be some good motivation to lose weight for those of us who need to. Watch out though, I'm not competitive, but I am extremely motivated:)

Happy Anniversary!

Last week was our 3rd anniversary! Last year we went on a cruise. The year before that we went to Hawaii. The year we got married we went to Europe. This year we stayed home. We talked about going out, but we only have so many options in Cedar City. So I decieded to make filet mignon for dinner. It was my first attempt. I watched an online video on the food network and what we got wasn't too bad. I really actually like making fancy things. This recipe called for goat cheese and had you make a syrup with balsalmic vinegar and sugar. It turned out super yummy.

I really am so glad that Curtis picked me. Before I got married I was a day dreamer and I never could have immagined a life this good. Now I'm married to a dreamer and it makes me wonder where he'll take me. I guess only time will tell. For now, I'm enjoying the journey.

Our Garden Box

Last year, I planted a garden and the dirt we mixed in with it wasn't enougth to overcome the clay. Our corn only grew 10" tall and our carrots looked more like baby carrots. So this year, we are going to have a garden that works. Curtis loaded up 108 cinder blocks and came home with a knowt in his back so big you could see it. Thanks husband. Look how good it looks.

PICTURES!!!

Me and Kenna Baby. She's our cuddler. Cooper and his Daddy. Dad HATES it when he cries and loves it when he's sleeping.

These are the outfits I would have put them in on St. Patrick's day had I remembered they were supposed to wear green:)

Me with our babies on their 3 month birthday!

From the pictures we post you might think they really like being next to eachother. They don't. They really don't seem to notice eachoter and they are at the stage that they swing their arms and hit eachother. I figure they are probably going to be best buds when they grow up so they will want picutes together. It's also funny to me how much bigger Cooper is than Kennedy. I promise, they drink the same milk.

Our babies are growing so fast! When we first brought them home from the hospital they both fit in this comfortably. Now, it's a bit tight. This is Kenna Baby in the Bumbo. She's got a ways to go before it works for her.

Cooper's chubby belly keeps him up a little bit better.

This is us, right before a walk. Don't I have the cutest little bears on the planet?

This is the last time I put them both in the bassinet. It's hard to believe that they both slept in there for our first few weeks home from the hospital.

I hope this makes you happy! Sorry it's been so long.

Pacifiers and a Church Outing

What would we do without pacifiers? I know some people are agaisnt them, but they have probably never had twins...(the cutest twins ever!)

Two weeks ago C and K got to go to church for the first time to see their cousin Kaden blessed. They pretty much slept in Aunt Kelli, Aunt Kyli and Grandma Jo's arms the whole time. But their mom made sure they had cute outfits on (dad suggested "church pajamas" - that didn't go over well though). Afterwards we had a family picture taken.