2nd Birthday Party!!!

So after our big Louisiana dinner party Thursday night (12/20), I stayed up until after 2am cleaning and making cupcakes--also, Makenna was having a rough time sleeping.  I woke at up 7:30 Friday morning and starting preparations for the party.  It took me several hours just to decorate the cupcakes.  THANKFULLY, Kiki and Jason came over in the afternoon to help me or I wouldn't have been able to finish everything I wanted to do (still didn't do everything I wanted to do but we did get all the "important" stuff done).

We had a Sesame Street party and the girls wore their Elmo and Abby tutus from Halloween; we had mostly family over (Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Jason, Aunt Laura's family, Aunt Kiki's family, Uncle Timmy, and one neighbor boy and his parents).

Decorations and Food:

 

The cupcake tower I made from cardboard boxes, tin cans, crepe paper and acrylic paint

For the game we played

I let Jason go crazy with the crepe paper and he hung all the decorations for me--for the ones that are really high, he got up on top of a stool that was on top of a chair!  CRAZY BOY!  I about had a heart attack!

The character cupcakes [the pink one is Abby--I didn't have time to had her hair poofs]

Avery enjoyed the Goldfish

 Some of the guests in party hats, ha ha:

Juddy

Uncle Jason

Daddy in his Oscar shirt with an Oscar cupcake  :)

Carma

Wyatt

DJ & Laura

Pizza!

Makenna

Avery

 Cupcakes!

 

 

 

 

 

I had a Cookie monster shirt, hat, & cupcake! :)

 Party favors:

 Opening gifts:

Cards and princess ponytail holders from Aunt Carrie's family

A little baby with accessories (high chair, stroller, bouncer, exersaucer, diaper bag, etc.) from Maw-maw and Paw-paw

Purses from Grandma

Cute hats from the neighbors

Musical instruments (tambourines and a horn) from Laura's family

A magnetic dress-up doll set (over 200 pcs.!) from Mommy and Daddy

A set of Sesame Street board books from Grandma

A Sesamet Street Playset from Kiki's family--all the kids wanted to break into it!

 We went outside on the deck for just a few minutes (it was COLD!) to blow bubbles from the Sesame Street character bubble containers Jared brought home from his last trip.  :)

 Then, we played Oscar's Trash Toss--basically just had the kids throw trash in a can, ha ha!

I think the girls had a lot of fun but, just as the last of the family was leaving (around 9pm?), Makenna puked on the kitchen floor. We got her cleaned up and changed and I was holding her (facing me) and she puked again. AAAAACK!!! I do NOT do well with puking and was gagging, which makes Jared mad, ha ha, but I can't help it! So we got us both changed again and put the girls to bed. She ended up puking in her crib twice and Jared finally decided to stay on the couch with her all night, surrounded by towels. So we went through 5 or 6 sleepers and two crib sheets and who knows how many towels. She puked all night, poor thing. She finally stopped puking around 9am and didn't puke again until that evening, after I gave her what was probably too much water. She was so grumpy all day, though! Jared stayed home with the girls on Sunday while I went to church and directed the choir--so glad I didn't get sick!!! Jared and Avery started puking that afternoon--of course I was holding Avery the first time she puked. Poor baby. 

No one has puked since Sunday night but they still weren't feeling 100% yesterday (Christmas Eve) and were pretty grumpy and clingy. I still can't believe I didn't catch it! *knock on wood!*  We decided to just stay home tonight, instead of driving to the family gathering with Grandma's side of the family; we didn't want to chance getting anyone sick, especially since one of the cousins is pregnant with twins.  Kiki just decided to come over tonight and bring dinner--good thing since I didn't prepare to have a proper Christmas dinner, since I thought we would be hanging out with family.  Kiki's family was around us the two days before Makenna got sick and only her husband got sick, so hopefully it will stay that way!

We hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas!  We sure do love and miss all of you!!!  We wish we could be with EVERYONE on Christmas!  

Christmas post coming soon....

Time with family and friends

On 12/8, we drove (in the snow) up to Grandma's house to visit Stephanie and her family while they were here for her SIL's wedding.  Michelle was also there but only brought her baby, who is so cute and getting so big.  The girls had a great time playing with their cousin, Luke!

Playing on Grandma's piano with Luke

Makenna loving Grandpa throwing her around

Avery loved it, too!

They also loved Jason piling the three of them on his lap

I wrote this on FB later that night: Whew! We made it back over the summit and home safely! My hand hurts from gripping the door handle so tight. I did not enjoy the drive there and back but I did enjoy our day with family and the girls had so much fun playing with a couple of their cousins.

12/10--The girls had their 2-year check-up and I wrote this on FB:
So the size difference between my twins (2 years old on the 20th) is:
Avery = 23.6 lbs. (13th percentile), 32 1/4" (15%)
Makenna = 27.4 lbs. (62%), 34 1/4" (66%)

I took them to their appt. by myself today and they did really well--only cried for a couple of minutes after their shots. While Makenna was still crying, the nurse asked if they wanted a sucker and Makenna, through her tears, exclaimed, "Yes!" Never one to pass up a treat, ha ha!

Also posted later that day: I am laughing so hard right now! I was watching TV, waiting for the girls to wake from their nap, when I heard Makenna freaking out all of the sudden. Iturned on the video monitor to see she had pulled her shirt over her head; her arms were flailing and she was yelling, "Stuck! Stuck!" Ha ha! I can'tstop laughing!

12/11--I was asked to play my marimba at the Relief Society Christmas dinner for our old ward in Orem.  I wrote this on FB: So I played my marimba at a Christmas dinner tonight and, during "Silent Night", the music stand gave out and lowered right onto the marimba bars. No way I could continue playing with it like that so I paused to lift the stand up but it wouldn't stay up. While I was leaning over to try to fix the stand, my long necklace got stuck in between the bars! Thankfully, someone sitting right in front of the marimba helped me get the stand back up and I just started where I left off. Pretty funny now but I was really embarrassed at the time! 
 
12/12--Makenna checking out the Christmas tree from behind the gate.  No problems keeping ornaments on the tree here, ha ha!

12/13 on FB: Instead of napping, the girls are CRACKING UP at each other and I think they're kicking the walls. It's pretty fun to listen to but I do hope they sleep soon. They did sleep for 15 or 20 min. in the car on the way home from shopping, though; but they normally sleep 2-3 hours. They are being so funny!

12/17: A young couple, Alana and Travis, from our ward in Louisiana (I'm friends with both of their moms) came and stayed the night with us so they could leave their car at our house and I could take them to the airport for their trip home for the holidays.  Alana was one of the young women I took to girls camp when I was camp director there and she was a Laurel when I was in the YW presidency.  So weird that she is married, ha ha!  Jared was on a business trip but the girls and I had a nice time with them.  They brought a box of Ferrero Rocher and the girls warmed up to Travis right away when he gave them some of it.  :)  I made them dinner that night and breakfast the next morning, then the girls and I brought them to the airport.  They will come back on the 4th and we'll pick them up and they'll stay another night.  Cute couple.

Posted on FB on 12/19: I am driving myself CRAZY looking for the dang Mary from our Little People Nativity. She's been missing for days now. Every time I enter a room, I look around and wonder if there are any spots I missed where the girls could have put her. And I have searched the same places over and over again. Please come back, Mary, for my sanity! Why do I even care so much? Oh, yeah, because I'm nuts!

And later that day...

I found Mary! I went to empty one of the bathroom trash cans and there she was, lying behind it, smiling up at me. And I smiled back. Then I promptly went and gathered all of the other Nativity pieces (which were strewn around the living room) and set the Nativity back up. The trash still needs to be emptied. :P

12/20:  The girls' 2nd birthday!!!  I wrote this on FB:
I can't believe my baby girls are two years old today! I waited so long for them to come into my life and now I can't remember what it was like to not have them and can't imagine a single day without them. They are my everything and bring immeasurable joy to me every single day. I thank my Heavenly Father for sending them to me and I words can't describe how happy and fulfilled I am to be a mother. And I still wonder how I got so lucky to not only have twins but to have two girls who are amazingly beautiful, sweet, well-behaved, smart, funny, and the list goes on. :)

That night, I had 20+ people from Louisiana over for dinner!  We had seafood gumbo (by Kiki, YUMMO!), red beans and rice, salad, corn bread, and bread pudding (made by me) with almond sauce and rum sauce.  Everything was awesome and we had an amazing time and were even treated to some singing--and I was forced to play the marimba, ha ha. 

Aunt Kiki and Avery.  Aaaaw!

I know Jared's eyes are closed in this one but I love Makenna's expression

 These next few pics are of 4 of us girls who spent a LOT of time together my senior year (over 20 years ago!  Ack!)--me, Chani, Amiee, and Kiki:

Doing our model faces--we did a runway show one time in one of our living rooms and the families still remember it

Our Wanda impressions (from In Living Color, which we used to watch and quote ALL THE TIME)

Our Fire Marshall Bill faces, also from In Living Color

Just cracking up at each other. :)

I love those girls and their families so much and it was so, so fun to hang out with them and some of their families that night!  I hope we get to do it again soon!

In the next day or so, I will post about their birthday party.  Merry Christmas, y'all!!!!

Christmas season is in full swing!

I got the Christmas decorations out on Dec. 1.  The girls had fun "helping" me and wearing some antlers and a Santa hat I pulled out of the bins:

 There were some plastic baby bottles with a Christmas tree my mom had decorated for their baby shower; Makenna got one and started feeding a little Christmas bear:

 On 12/3, we went as a family in the afternoon to pick out a Christmas tree at a local farm by our house.  They had fun smelling the trees and checking them out.  They almost had more fun picking up rocks and stuff, though, especially Avery:

 

 

 We decorated the tree that night:

Avery helped Daddy put the lights on the tree

Makenna was checking out a little book with pictures from their very first Christmas

 They both enjoyed helping us to put ornaments on the tree and did really well waiting their turn:

 

 

 

I need to get a picture of the finished product and post it.

We went today (12/7) to get Santa photos taken.  It wasn't what I hoped for but I did expect it:

I think it's pretty funny and think everyone should have one of these kinds of Santa photos from their childhood, ha ha!

For memory's sake, here's the one from last year:

I played a piano solo at our Relief Society Christmas dinner last night.  It went really well and the dinner was nice.  I thought I was gonna have to get the girls ready and take them to the nursery provided but Jared surprised us (SCARED the heck out of me!) and got home a day early, just as I was cleaning the girls up after dinner before getting them ready to go.  He came to the back door and just started shaking it, as if he was trying to open it.  The girls were in their high chairs, just a few feet from the door and I froze as I was wiping Avery's hands and thought about going to get the gun and calling 911.  I yelled, "Who is it?" and he started laughing.  Such a stinker!  It was nice to not have to get the girls ready and take them with me, since I was already feeling hectic and nervous about my solo.  It all turned out great, though.  Now to get through these next busy 2+ weeks!!!

We miss you, Praia!

We went to Jared's cousin's wedding reception in Heber on Dec. 1.  When we got home, I was getting ready for bed and Jared went to let Praia in and she didn't come to the door, so Jared went looking for her and found that she had passed away.  She was getting old and we figure she probably had a heart attack or something, as she looked like she died in her sleep.  We got her as a 6-week-old pup the weekend that we moved into our first house--the weekend after Thanksgiving in 2000; we got Chloe, our cat, the same weekend.  She was such a great dog--sweet, loyal, loving, obedient, and smart. She was awesome to take

camping and fishing, which she loved. We enjoyed 12 great years with her and will miss her terribly. We are sad but somewhat thankful that she didn't have to get even older and suffer any more on this earth. We love you, Praia!

She was such a cute puppy!!! (this was in 2000)

And she grew into a beautiful dog (this was in 2005)