2 busy months!!!

Wow, has it really been 2 months since I posted?! Yikes! I kept meaning to update once we got into our house and finally got the internet but I was so far behind that I felt overwhelmed with it and kept putting it off. So I'm gonna make myself get it done to day (even if it takes up all of the twins' naptimes) so I can start posting more regularly again.

In the last post, I mentioned that my MIL was flying to AZ and driving up to UT with me. My SIL picked her up from the airport and brought her family to our house for a quick visit.We left Sat. morning (8/13) and drove to Page, AZ and stayed the night in a hotel there. The girls were so happy to be next to each other and play with each other, instead of being in their car seats on opposite sides of the car:
They did so well in the hotel. We were only allowed to have one crib, so Avery slept in it and Makenna slept on the bed with me. Avery went right to sleep and it took Makenna about 30 min. to fall asleep and they didn't make a peep for over 10 hours! Little angels.

We stopped in Kanab, UT for one of the girls' feedings on Sunday and they got to experience grass for the first time (since there was none where we lived in AZ!):
We got to Kiki's house and fed the girls right away--they were apparently starving right to death! My SIL, Laura, brought her daughter over and we all had a nice visit. The girls were enthralled with their cousins. On Monday, the girls even got to take a bath with their cousin, Carma, and they had so much fun:

I was so happy to be able to go to my nephew's (Judson) birthday party on Friday, 8/19. I can't believe he's already 11!!!! The girls had fun being with everyone but they were quite tired by the end of the party. They took some pics with Uncle Timmy and Aunt Nikki:
And had fun swinging on the hammock:
On Sunday (8/21), the girls and I went to church with Kiki's family. Carma looked beautiful in her Sunday dress:
Jared had left the day before to drive from AZ, where he had to stay and work. He was waiting for us at Kiki's when we got home from church. The next morning, we went to Logan and finalized the adoption. It was so special! We were able to take some pictures in the courthouse and outside afterward:
After the finalization, we had a nice visit with the birthmom and her mom and sister. We took her and her mom out to lunch. It was a very special day. Jared left the next morning to go back to AZ and finish his job there for another two weeks. I stayed at Kiki's and continued looking for a house to move into. A funny thing happened at Kiki's--I went to get the girls from a nap and Avery had taken her diaper off and was chewing on it! Eeeew! At least it was just the outside part! I got to go to one of Judson's soccer games and we had lots of fun playing with Kiki's kids. Carma was a great cousin and helped with the girls by entertaining them when they were fussy. Wyatt loves them and was always hugging them--although he does like to tell them "no" and keep certain toys away from them. I think it's a pecking order thing--finally someone he can boss around, ha ha!

I took the girls to Nikki's to watch the first LSU game of the season on 9/3--we stomped Oregon! :) We were laughing at Avery crawling over Makenna:
They do that to each other all the time now. The one on bottom usually bawls. I had left them downstairs in their "cage" one day, with the video monitor set up, and tried to do some unpacking. I was only upstairs for 5 min. when Avery started screaming. I looked at the monitor and saw Makenna on top of her, Avery was on her back. I went downstairs and took Makenna off of her and saw that there was also a hard toy under Avery's back. Poor thing!

Well, this is quite the long post already, so I think I'll end it here and post the rest of it tomorrow...

Another visit from Maw-maw & Paw-paw!

It's been over 2 weeks since I last posted--we've been getting ready for our move! My dad told me last night, though, that they needed a new post (even though they were just here last week, ha ha). They drove out to Utah to be with Nikki again; she had to have yet another surgery (3rd since May). So they decided to stop by here on their way home again. They got here last Wed. afternoon and left early Friday morning. The girls loved having them here, as did I--it's always great to have some help! :) My dad got the biggest kick out of Makenna's fake cough (which she does to get attention); she noticed that he would always laugh at it and she did it SO MUCH while they were here, ha ha!

This is my new way of bathing them (instead of using a baby bathtub that fits over the kitchen sink--they started splashing way too much and getting water all over the kitchen, so I decided to try this; I got the idea from a movie commercial of all things); 8/1/11:
They seemed to like it and I'm able to bath both of them at the same time. Two problems, though--it hurts my back and knees to kneel over the bathtub and Avery isn't heavy enough to keep the Bumbo firmly down on the bathtub floor (those Bumbos are a little buoyant). But it works well enough and that's what we'll probably do until they can fully sit up well enough to bath without them.

Pics from my parents' visit:

{Makenna rocking on Paw-paw's belly, 8/3/11}:

{M on left, A on right, 8/5/11--taken as they were just about to leave to head home}:

Jared's aunt, Cindy, and her husband just moved here (into our ward, actually!) from Louisiana. Jim works at the same co. as Jared; they moved to La. the same time we moved here, and now they moved here for Jim to take over as the manager here. Weird how things work out, huh? It was nice having them to hang out with for a bit before we move. We've had them over a few times so they could help us use up some of the food from our freezer. :)

{Makenna chewing on a frozen washcloth (for her gums) on Aunt Cindy's lap, 8/5/11}:

{Avery hanging out on Daddy's lap}:

This past Sat. (8/6), we went out to lunch at a pizza buffet here in town with one of Jared's employees and her family. They took lots of pictures of the girls and got some pretty good ones.

{Makenna chillin' in her car seat}:

{Mommy and Makenna}:

{Daddy and Avery (still sticks that tongue out when she smiles!)}:
{Look at Makenna's two little bottom teeth!}:
{Cool chick Avery}:
{Avery loves when Daddy throws her up in the air!}

Makenna started this rocking thing, where she rocks back and forth while she's sitting in someone's lap, or lying on her belling on the floor, or standing in the bouncer. It's pretty cute. Avery started doing the "army crawl" last week--she is one determined little girl and will try her darnedest to get something she wants. They both can sit up alone for short bursts. Avery can jet around the house pretty good in the walker now! Her favorite thing is chasing after Cleo (our little dog). She can turn around in the walker and everything now! Makenna feels so heavy now! I think she's only about a lb. heavier than Avery but it feels like a lot more to me! There's a definite difference.

My MIL, JaNene, is flying down here on Friday to drive up to Utah with me and the girls. We'll leave Sat. night, stay the night in Page, AZ and drive the rest of the way on Sunday. I'll stay at Kiki's house with the girls all next week while I look for a house in that area. Jared will drive up the next weekend with a small load of stuff; we are doing the adoption finalization on the 22nd (I'm so excited!!!). He will then come back to AZ the next day and work for a week or two while he finishes packing the house, then he will move it all up to UT.

I'm hoping to find a house REALLY soon next week so I can move in with the girls while Jared comes back to AZ. It's hard finding a house that will allow all three of our pets. Please pray for us! I really want to find something ASAP!

I'd better get back to packing. I've done this post in several short sessions since last night. It's hard to get much of anything done with the girls, so I have to rush and do things while they're both actually asleep at the same time. My visiting teacher is coming over today to watch them so I can concentrate fully on packing for a couple of hours. If I need her to, she will come over again tomorrow. I'm so thankful for the church and good people who are willing to help!

Visitors! :)

My MIL (JaNene) and BIL (Jason) came to visit us last week. They got here Tuesday evening. Jared's oldest sister and her three kids came over for a couple of hours that evening, as well. Jared had to work every day, so JaNene, Jason and I pretty much just hung out each day Jared was at work; we played on the Wii a lot, ha ha. We all went out to eat at a diner Wed. night. Jared got home from work early on Friday and he took Jason on a ride in his truck up a hilly dirt road near our house. Friday night, we put the girls in bed and JaNene stayed home with them while Jared, Jason and I went to the town Pioneer Day dance. We didn't know what to expect but we had fun dancing--Jared and I only sat out 4 or 5 songs in the 2 hours we were there.

On Sat. (our 12th anniversary), we all went shopping at Walmart, came home and fed the girls, then went and ate at a pizza buffet. That evening, JaNene stayed home with the girls again (she wanted to get to bed early because they were driving home the next day) so Jared, Jason and I could go to the Pioneer Day celebration. We went to the parade, then checked out the food booths in the college football field--there were booths for BBQ sandwiches, pies, ice cream, etc. I got a hamburger, Jared got a hamburger and hot dog, and Jason got ribs. We found one of my friends and talked for a bit, then we decided to leave before the fireworks and go get ice cream cones at Sonic. We got home in time to watch the fireworks from our house, then Jason and I played Just Dance 2 on the Wii (which I got as my anniv. present). It was so much fun! It may not have been the most romantic anniv. but I was just happy to be able to get out of the house and do stuff, so it was a great day! It was so nice to hang out with JaNene and Jason! I can't wait to be able to hang out with more friends and family again!

I'm pretty sure that everyone that reads this blog knows by now that we are moving back to UT. We don't have definite dates yet but the plan is to go up to UT the week of the 22nd for the adoption finalization and look for a house. We will then come back to AZ and move somewhere around the 2nd week of Sept. That could all change, though. I will probably end up going up there with the girls a week early to look for a house before Jared gets there. Nothing is set in stone, though. I'm getting more and more anxious for the move. It will be so nice to be back in UT!!!

Here are some pictures from last week:

{Grandma feeding Makenna while I fed Avery}:

{Part of our bedtime ritual, which includes reading books, saying prayer and brushing their teeth}:

{Me, Jason & Jared before heading to the dance}:

Avocado FAIL!!! Here is a hilarious video of me feeding the girls avocados for the first time:

As soon as I turned the camcorder off, Avery gagged hard enough to make herself puke up the few bites of avocado I fed her. Poor thing--we won't be feeding them avocado again any time soon! It made a pretty funny video, though!!

Birthday, Playard, Messy Eaters, CUTENESS!

I mentioned in the last post that we didn't have any plans for my birthday. Well, I was just hanging out with the girls when the doorbell rang. Let's just say I had to throw on my LSU Snuggie to answer the door. I just opened it a crack and saw a whole group of ladies from my ward (6 of them) standing at my doorstep and they were all wishing me a happy birthday! I giggled and asked them to give me a minute and ran and got dressed and went back to the door. I was embarrassed that I hadn't been fully dressed. Imagine my horror when I realized they had food and all wanted to come in and have lunch--my house wasn't as clean I like it to be when people come over. But, after getting over my pride and realizing how ultra-sweet it was for them to surprise me with a birthday lunch (and them reassuring me the house wasn't that bad and they didn't care, anyway), I was able to relax and have a really nice time. They brought Mexican soup, homemade rolls, the cake pictured below and a couple of gifts. Everything was so yummy! I had to laugh at the cake because my Maw-maw made me American flag cakes for my birthdays when I was little. That night, Jared brought home Mexican take-out so I didn't have to cook dinner and we ate after then girls went to bed. It ended up being a great birthday.
Here's the playard I mentioned before; it's a North State Superyard XT Gate plus extension kit. It's hard to tell in the pic how big it is; from the wall to the panel that's parallel to it is 5' 3" and it's 5' 7" the other way--and there's still another panel that isn't being used because then it would REALLY take up too much room in the living room!
Just a couple of fun pics of the girls eating carrots; this one of Makenna cracks me up!:
And Avery rubbed the carrots all over her face, had it caked on her eyebrows and even had it on her eyelashes--you should click on the pic to see a larger version:
The girls are fed food three times a day plus 5 bottles. So far, they are eating rice cereal (always mixed with bananas or pears and some apple juice and for or just a little added to other fruits and veggies to thicken them a little), sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, and carrots. Their favorite is the rice cereal with banana or pear and the sweet potatoes with apples. It's so nice that they to try to "help" me feed them, ha ha; even better when they try to help me feed each other. They are always pulling their bibs off and trying to pull each other's bibs off, as well. When any of the pets are around, they get totally distracted, which makes it hard to feed them. Sometimes when they're really hungry, they cry the whole time the spoon is not in their mouth--really fun when both of them do that! It's hard not to get messy while feeding two because, after you give one a bite and you think they are swallowing it, you go to give the other one a bit and the first one starts dribbling food down her chin or onto her leg or puts her hands in her mouth, etc. Feeding time is always interesting!


These are the onesies I painted for the 4th of July; I just barely got around to taking better pics of them yesterday. I love that I got them both smiling. Usually, Avery smiles but Makenna gets mesmerized by the camera and just stares at it like a deer in headlights (although she smiles really easily when the camera's not around, of course!):
Makenna really wanted to get at Avery's flower!:
These adorable outfits were given to us by Aunt Michelle's family; Makenna was obsessed with the booties:
Jared noticed at church this past Sunday that Makenna had cut two teeth the previous night! So now they both have two bottom teeth--but Avery's are much bigger. It's near impossible to get a picture of their teeth--and Makenna's are too hard to see in a photo--but here's the best I could get yesterday of Avery's:
CUTE, RIGHT? :)

Um, what else? I weighed them both on my scale the other day and Makenna is just over 16 lbs. and Avery is right around 15 lbs. Avery is starting to rock on her hands and knees a tiny little bit. She never does it long enough for me to get a photo or video of it. I'm sure it won't be long before she's crawling, though! She is also moving forward more in the walker. It was so cute this morning when she "walked" quite a few feet to get to where Makenna was in the bouncer. They sat and played together for quite a while. They are such good, sweet girls. I can't believe they will be 7 months old next week!!

Girls' 1st 4th!

First, some other random pics:

{This is how Avery sleeps a majority of the time; I think it's adorable but it bugs me at the same time that she wakes up with marks on her face and I'm always worried her hands and arms are falling asleep; 6/30/11}:

{The girls insist on sitting crooked in their Boppy seats while I'm feeding them--makes feeding super easy, NOT! Avery is worse about it. 7/1/11}:

Thought I'd share some pics of two of the furbabies; 7/1/11}:

{This is why I ordered a playard (a gate that goes all around to "corral" the girls in); Avery pulled that little theatre system speaker off the bottom shelf and starting chewing on the cord! 7/2/11}:

Our first 4th of July with the girls: Jared had to work but went in a little later than usual. I cleaned the kitchen, changed 6 poopy diapers, and had to change the changing pad cover twice. Jared came home early enough for us to go over to one of my friend's mom's house for a BBQ. We had a nice time with them. This is the only pic I got the whole day (well, I took 4, but they're all this same basic pic}:
Those are onesies I painted. Avery had a rough night--we woke them up to get in the car to go there so she was grumpy most of the night and I think she had a hard time with all the people and activity going on there. Then, we stayed past their bedtime so they were both getting really tired. We put them to bed as soon as we got home, then Jared and I sat on the back porch and watched the Safford fireworks display. Then, I watched the 2nd half of the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Special while I worked out on the elliptical. The day ended up being pretty good. I'm gonna take more pics of the girls in those onesies later today.

We're not really doing anything for my birthday today but it is a great birthday, anyway, since I have my sweet girls to spend the day with. :)