Thursday, November 5, 2009

Hooray for Hand-me-downs!!!

There are some advantages to having our cousins a bit older than us...we get their toys when they outgrow them. Thanks Petersens for sharing with us! Addison seems to enjoy the four wheeler the most and Avery is probably a close second. August was in school during the video and Aiden was napping. We'll have to get a video of those two together tonight. (If Aiden is as brave as her sister!) Thanks again!

There is definitely some loud squeaking in the video, but if you listen closely you can also hear Avery's giggle!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Halloween Stress!







Love this picture! Avery (ladybug) Aiden (pumpkin)



Living in a household of four little girls, Halloween really isn't that big of a deal. Everyday is a dress-up day of some sort. We usually don't stress that much about getting new costumes every year because their closets are already full of princess dresses, dance costumes, etc. Here's where the stress comes in though...between school, dance, pre-school, the trunk or treat (held on Friday not Saturday), and actual Halloween, I dressed up at least one kiddo five days in a row. Now, that's still not that bad, right? Well, you see when they don't have a set costume that leads to the changing of their cute little minds during the week. Oh joy! Good thing there is a lot of chocolate lying around during this time of year. I needed it this week! Good thing tomorrow is Monday and we can get back to our normal craziness, which is pretty much the same just with fewer bobby pins and less glitter. :) August was a princess the first 2 days of dress-up then shifted to Taylor Swift then to the more glammed up Taylor. Addison was consistently a ballerina during the week by made some major wardrobe changes, going from her dance clothes to August's old recital costume. Avery and Aiden only made one Halloween appearance as a cute ladybug and an adorable pumpkin.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Who doesn't love the fair?



Yay! I love the changing of seasons! Isn't fall the greatest? I mean kids are back in school, the weather is more tolerable (we don't have A/C), and most importantly the Eastern Idaho State Fair is in full swing. Yahoo! We went this week on a weeknight. Definitely the way to go. The crowds were manageable, which is important when you're maneuvering a double stroller around. We do the same things year after year. But why change a good thing, right? We check out the amazing photography (yay Papa!), are blown away by the quilts and crafts, get STUFFED by yummy fair food, and finally pet all kinds of farm animals. (Don't worry, a good hand scrubbing is always part of our routine!)

Addison started preschool this week. She was so excited. I'm so happy for her. I didn't realize how hard it is to be the second child. It has been hard for her to watch August get big and try new things. I'm afraid Addie is not incredibly patient. Hmmm...wonder where she gets that?
Dance also started this week for the girls. Addison's best friend Anaya is in her class. They were dying of excitement on the way over there. What is cuter than two little girls all dressed up for the first day of dance lessons?
Soccer is in full swing. August is pretty timid on the field. She says she's afraid to hurt the other girls. I think Aunt Brooke needs to come over and run a training camp for her in the backyard. She likes her coach and the girls on her team and the game was entertaining, so that's what's most important, I guess.



Let's see, how do I describe Avery and Aiden these days? Let's just say staying one step ahead of them is becoming increasingly difficult. They climb onto the counters, open doors, and today Aiden learned how to get onto the changing table and slather herself with lotion. Now if she could just learn to change her own diaper while she's up there. :) Needless to say the house is full of gates, latches, and doorknob thingers. Wow, it's hard not to wish away this stage!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Back to School


Yesterday was August's first day of FIRST GRADE! She seemed to do great. She ate chicken nuggets at lunch and enjoyed recess. That's about all the info she gave us. Aren't kids silly! I'm excited to be back on a schedule. All of our carpool arrangements are made and we're set for this new year. It shouldn't be as hard to load kids in and out all day now that Avery and Aiden are bigger. Addison starts preschool in a couple of weeks and they both start dance soon...so tune in for more pictures. August is also playing fall soccer and seems to like it so far. We'll see if that lasts when they're playing during some bad weather. :(

I finally tried out the "extreme coupon shopping" yesterday. (Thanks to my helpful sis-in-law...it's kind of confusing at first) I bought $90 worth of stuff for $32. Not bad for my first time. I can see how people get addicted to this!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Radioactive Mama

Okay here is the story of my summer, and Brandon and the girls' a little more indirectly. I feel that I can now blog about it because I'm not smack dab in the middle of it. I'll try and make it short and sweet. I've had thyroid problems for years which causes me to take medication and get annual thyroid ultrasounds. This year it seems my little thyroid nodules decided to grow slightly, hence the need for a biopsy. Ouch. Not fun...it's just not natural to see someone coming at you with a needle...repeatedly! Biopsy showed basically nothing but they couldn't rule out cancer. Okay, that's helpful. My doctor felt like surgery was needed and we decided to just take the whole thyroid out. Yikes. I had my surgery on June 26th...again painful and unnatural. Isn't it a natural response to try and protect your neck against sharp objects? They actually did find a tiny cancerous mass, so I'm so glad I had the surgery. Ooh...I forgot the most pleasant little tidbit of this whole process -"The Low-Iodine Diet." (spoken with a creepy low voice) I started the diet before surgery and remained on it for 8 weeks. What is the Low-Iodine Diet you ask? The most horrific, torturous diet ever. In my humble opinion. It's a way to starve your body of iodine because the next part of this fun summer is receiving radioactive iodine to kill any remaining thyroid cells left in the body. We'll get to that next. I'm still not done complaining about the diet yet. I couldn't have any dairy, egg yolks, chocolate, anything with red dye (bye-bye Cinnamon Bears and Red Vines! ), basically anything with salt in the ingredients because you don't know if it was iodized salt or not! Ask me when I'll ever eat a corn tortilla or a fruit smoothie again. Ugh! Gross! It took me 7 weeks to get my levels low enough for treatment. That means I had to be tested twice. How do they tell your iodine levels you ask. Good question. With a 24-hour urine test. Yes, that's correct...collect your pee for 24 hours and store the big pee jug in your fridge! April and I are sure my kids' primary teachers probably heard all about that one. Can you just imagine that conversation? This Wednesday I received my radioactive iodine treatment at the hospital in the Nuclear Medicine area. It was pretty easy...I just had to take these two tiny pills. The catch is that I couldn't be around anyone for 2 days and pregnant women and children for 4 days. The girls are all in Utah with the fam and we're going to pick them up TOMORROW. Yay! The treatment made me tired and a little weak, but that's all. I actually started my thyroid meds again today...finally. I hope that I can feel like myself again soon. One of the side effects of everything is my manly voice. My vocal chords haven't healed yet from surgery so when I answer my phone people always think I've been crying or that I've been sleeping. Nope, just don't have a voice. Oh well, if that's the extent of the fallout I'm good with that. I want to thank our awesome families for taking such good care of us this summer. You've helped so much with the girls and we appreciate it tons. Hopefully we're done with the drama for awhile. Great, just jinxed myself! If anyone ever has this problem...I'm your girl. Give me a call and we can chat.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

A Week in Review

What a week! We have had a lot of fun hanging out with family and friends. Brandon got tickets to the midnight showing of Harry Potter on Tuesday night. He and August went with Leon and Brandon's cousin Jared. Yes, August liked the movie and did stay awake. We had her take a power nap beforehand which helped I'm sure. Then Brandon went golfing with a client (18 holes) on Wednesday after having 3 hours of sleep. He didn't care though. He likes golfing and RARELY (the annual Bear Lake outing) gets to go. On Thursday night we met Brandon's sis, Penny, and her family up at Palisades where they were camping. We didn't get to stay for long but it was a lot of fun. The kids ate hot dogs, and we all ate some yummy, "better than anything" cake. I had never been to Palisades and it is really beautiful. Thanks to the Petersens for the invite! Friday was my birthday and my mom came up for the weekend. Thanks Mom! We had dinner at Olive Garden and then were surprised by my Dad staying over that night. He came to deliver a load in Driggs for Luke on Saturday morning so he stayed the night and part of Saturday. Brandon went golfing (another 18 holes) on Saturday morning with his friend Rhett and cousins Cory and Jared. What are the odds...twice in one week! I thought it was MY birthday! :) On Saturday our great friends from Utah stopped by for a visit on their way to Yellowstone. It was awesome to see the Andersons and to meet Kami's boyfriend Kyle. In the afternoon Brandon watched the girls while Brooke, my Mom, and I went shopping and had a little girl time. Then my cousin Christalee and her kids stopped by for a visit. They have been in Utah visiting family and now they're vacationing in Yellowstone before they go back home to Minnesota. Sheesh...a lot of visitors huh! On Saturday afternoon our awesome neighbors took the big girls to Rigby Lake, the Rexburg splash park, and out to pizza. Thank you Finlaysons! The girls had a blast. Today we finished the week off with a BBQ at Pam and Leon's with birthday cake and ice cream. Whew! Can a person ever have TOO MUCH fun? Nah, don't think so.

I almost forgot to blog the most glorious event to happen to our family in the last 18 months! Our precious toddler daughters are now in NURSERY, and they love it...and so do we! Yes! We made it. I feel like shouting it from the rooftops... "Here we come sunday school, relief society, priesthood lessons. We're ready to learn again!"

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Our Jackson Hole Retreat!




Brandon and I celebrated our 9th anniversary in May. Whoa! A lot has happened in nine years, huh. (namely, having 4 kids!) Brandon won a three night stay in Jackson a while back and we finally decided to use it to celebrate the occasion. The last time we went away together was when August was a year old and we went to Florida for work. (and just as a side note, the Florida trip was about 10% fun-90% not fun at all...Huh Kam!) We had a really great, relaxing time this trip though. Before I forget I must thank our team of nannies (or manny in Reese's case!) my Mom, Brooke, and Reese made our vacation possible. Thanks team...we really appreciate you! We stayed in a great condo close to Teton Village. We went to Yellowstone on our first day. It's still an amazing place to visit. We went to Teton Village and rode the new aerial tram. It was a lot of fun! We got to watch some para gliders jump off the side of the mountain. I even got to read a new book! (The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins...I'd highly recommend it!) We had fun but it was great coming home too. The girls were so happy to see us and Avery and Aiden showered us with kisses!

Friday, May 8, 2009

Entertained...

Isn't it funny what can keep kids entertained for hours!! Actually adults too, I guess. I watched my kids do all of this and I too was thoroughly entertained.


Hula Hooping: August has some sort of chicken-dance technique going on, but hey whatever works.


Cleaning like Mommy: this is a favorite because they can play peekaboo with each other and see themselves in the mirror.














Standing on bags of diapers: I really don't know how this one came about, but I'm all for getting my money's worth out of diapers! Notice how Avery went back to get her camera too.


Playing dress-up and posing for the camera: this is Addison and her best friend, Anaya



Sunday, April 26, 2009

Oh the horror!!!







This is what we woke up to this morning, April 26th! Why do I continue to be shocked and horrified by the weather? This is eastern Idaho...it snows in spring. It's just a fact. I still have vivid memories of our Ricks graduation(not BYU-I, I'm old I know). We were all lined up outside in caps and gowns, covered in snow. Yahoo! What an appropriate send-off from good old Rexburg, don't ya think. It's just so annoying that yesterday was gorgeous outside. Brandon mowed the lawn, we went for a walk, the kids played outside, and then when our guard was down...Wham! A blizzard. Okay, so I'm exaggerating a tad...the only reason I can really even talk about this rationally is because all the snow has already melted. Hallelujah!

Here are Aiden & Avery doing their new favorite thing. Brushing teeth.




Sunday, April 19, 2009

Catch up!





Well, we took a little Internet break for the past few months...and now we're back. A lot has happened! Aiden and Avery are into EVERYTHING! They love to pick through the garbage and dump things onto the floor. They just follow each other around all day wreaking havoc on our poor house! I was really proud of myself for making it through the baby (breastfeeding) stage with twins, but I'm learning the fun is just beginning!!! They are not quiet, little babies at church anymore. They scream and cry and run. Last week Aiden tried out her new eardrum rupturing scream in the middle of sacrament meeting. The bishop actually paused for a second at the pulpit so that people would be able to hear him. They are pretty funny though and we adore them. They had their 15 month checkup on Friday and they are doing great. They play pretty well together, but the occasional wrestling match over toys does occur. They love bath time and think it's hilarious to run away from us while we're trying to get their jammies on. August is still loving kindergarten and she just lost her first tooth. She says the funniest things. I really think she could be a comedian...her timing is perfect. Addison loves playing outside and loves all animals. She's finally started riding her bike around the driveway and she loves it. The weather is finally springlike around here and so we've enjoyed going to the park and playing in the back yard. Easter was a lot of fun. Brandon's sis April surprised us with a visit. We had an egg hunt, a trip to Bear World, a yummy Easter dinner and a lot of crafts and projects crammed into the weekend. A good time was had by all!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Birthday Mania!




We have three of our four girls birthdays within five days in January. I wouldn't recommend it. For starters you have the whole Christmas hangover going on and then wham...Birthday Mania!!! Addison turned four this year. That's crazy!!! August turned four when we first moved to Idaho. Where has the time gone? She had a great party with a cake frosted orange and pink, just like she ordered. (Thanks Grandma and Aunt Brooke.) She is so excited to be four. She's a "big girl" now! The babies turned one on the 17th. Can I call them babies still? Well, they're MY BABIES. Avery & Aiden loved their cake, but didn't quite understand the present thing. This year has gone by so fast. It's all just a blur really. We have learned so much this year. We feel so blessed to have our four,beautiful, healthy, little girls. I think Brandon and I have learned to appreciate each other even more. Our life is very structured and scheduled (out of necessity) and it takes both of us to keep things running smoothly. My mom was here all week to hit both birthdays and she helped Brooke and I arranged furniture and hang pictures. It was a lot of fun...thanks for being the shuttle, Dad. Brandon's parents just got back last night from Arizona so we're over here visiting. They brought lots of grapefruit and lemons back...yum! Thanks for all the presents and cards everyone, and I'm sorry I had three kids so close together right after Christmas!