Books

On Monday my sister taught me how to make a book. She took a class on how to do it so she had all the supplies like book board and binding paper.

It was really fun to cut out the cover and spine and then cover them with paper. I cheated and used paper that was already bound together for the inside. One day I'll have to learn how to bind the paper together. Emily and David also worked on books. It was a fun project.

I gave the book to Brandon for Christmas. He was shocked that I made it. He's going to use it as to keep track of his progress on his Goals for 2011.

Our Christmas Day on December 28th

Back when Brandon and I were dating he wanted to make sure I could handle being married to a pilot. The way scheduling works in the aviation industry is that the lowest seniority pilots get the last pick for when they work. That means that as a pilot he would probably be working Christmas Day for several years. I told him that was fine with me since Christmas Day is usually pretty boring after the first hour anyway.

Well Brandon isn't a pilot yet, but he is working in the aviation industry right now and he was scheduled to work on Christmas Day. We figured that since Brandon helped families be together on Christmas Santa would let us have Christmas on another day. Santa made his appearance at our house on Tuesday December 28th.

Even though it wasn't the "right" day it still felt like Christmas. We had a great time opening presents. My favorite gift this year was the 4th book in the Anne of Green Gables Series, Anne of Windy Poplars. Brandon buys me a Anne book every year. Brandon says this was the only paperback Anne left at Borders when he went Christmas Shopping. He was so happy that it was the exact one he needed. Santa must have been looking out for Brandon.

I mostly gave Brandon tools. They are always a guaranteed pleaser. Plus he uses them to make things for me. This year he made me a shelf out of an old desk that someone was giving away.

We gave the girls baby back pack carriers so they can get out of the house with us on walks. I'm looking forward to the next nice weather day.
After we opened presents we made a huge breakfast. This has been our tradition for several years. It's our way to make Christmas Day last longer.
We had Egg McMuffin type sandwiches with bacon. We also had sausage, hash browns, orange rolls, and cranberry juice. All that food combined with candy made me sick the rest of the day. But it was so worth it!
We spent the rest of the day watching movies and reading Indian in the Cupboard. It was such a nice Christmas.

DVD Christmas Card - 2010

Every year for the past several years my family has put together a DVD Christmas Card. The tradition started because we were involved in so many performing arts. It was easier to show people what we did during the year than to tell about what we did.

This year we still did the Christmas Card, but it is on You Tube. We all made our own videos except for Billy who is on his mission.

I thought you all might enjoy seeing what my other family members have done this year. Here are links to all the different videos.

Mom and Dad

Valerie and Brandon

Lindsey and John

Emily and David

Billy

Hillary

Christmas Eve

Our pediatrician told us that we shouldn't take the girls to any parties until the end of RSV season in March. So originally we weren't going to go to the annual Christmas Eve party at Brandon's parents house.

I just couldn't imagine us sitting at home all by ourselves and missing the party so we changed our minds and decided to make an appearance for 45 minutes in the middle of the party.

Then we found out that the party would be the only chance for Brandon to see his brother Bryan who was coming up from Arizona. So we decided to go early to the party and see him, his wife, and their 4 month old boy.

As soon as the other guests arrived with their kids we put the girls into a back bedroom to keep them away from any germs. They fell right asleep and stayed asleep for the whole party.

The cousins were allowed a peek at the tiny new babies.

The party was so much fun. It was the only Christmas Party I went to this year so it was awesome to be there. I wasn't burned out from Holiday cheer. I had a blast talking to everyone and eating all the wonderful food.

As always my favorite part was the chimes. This year the chimes went really well. The little kids are getting old enough that they can do the chimes without much help.

I also enjoyed our tradition of holding hands and singing carols as we dance around the Christmas tree. This will be so fun to do with the girls next year.

All too soon the party was over and everyone started leaving. The girls had been so good the whole time that we decided to stay late and talk to Bryan and Kara. We were there until 1:00 in the morning. It was fun to hear Brandon laugh and joke with his brother.

I'm so glad we could spend so much time with family at the wonderful party.

Announcement

Here is the birth announcement for the girls. The footprints are their actual footprints -just not actual size.

Do you know how hard it is to get one good picture of two 7 week old babies? It took over 60 pictures to get the one we used. Here are some of the not so great pics.

One baby would be cute and the other would be crying.
Brandon was standing above the girls and they kept looking at him.

2010 Christmas Video

Here is our video Christmas card for 2010. This is part of my family's annual DVD Christmas card tradition.

It is crazy to look back at every thing we did. If someone had shown me this video last year I wouldn't have believed it was really about my life. I mean it's like sitcom writers took over. Graduation! Twins! Epic Road Trip! Miscarriage! Still Pregnant! Moving! Hospital!

Anyway enjoy the video.

Using My Major

I majored in Economics. Pre-law economics to be exact. It sounds impressive, but really I was too sick of school to pursue the longer Managerial Econ degree. I figured any thing was better than paying professors to be mean to me with lectures and homework.

After I graduated I started working at a third party utility billing company. I didn't use my major much, but it did come in handy occasionally. For instance part of my job included figuring out why the resident's bills increased or decreased based on the percent changes in occupants, city bills, consumption, etc. It was very similar to figuring out the shift factors of supply and demand.

Here is a pic of me being all business-like when I worked at H&R Block during college. (I'm at my parent's house right now and I can't find where they saved any recent pics.)

Since finding out about the twins I've thought about my major a lot. I think about one economic principle in particular - economies of scale. Economies of scale basically means the more things you produce the cheaper they are to produce (up to a point). Click on this link for a long more accurate definition.

Economies of scale are totally at work in my life right now. People often say "double the trouble" when they find out I have twins, but for the most part I say the girls are only about 1.5 times more work than a single baby.

For example: we have one cradle that holds both babies, we probably wash out bottles just as often as with one baby, I can take both babies to the doctor at the same time, etc.

I often think that if we're going to give up a second income for awhile it might as well be for raising two at once. I'm glad I can use my major on a daily basis.

Here are some other pics I found on my parents computer. Most of these were taken while I was in college.

September 2006 - I'd met Brandon a few weeks before this.

Our wedding invitation/announcement.
This one was taken at Badger Creek Ropes Course (not to be confused with Badger Mountain RC) when I was 17.
One of my Bridals.
January 2007

April 2006

Picture this . . .

There are pictures in this post. But I'm going to write about moments I don't have pictures of. I think you will see why I don't have pictures of them.

Last night I was making dinner while the girls were having tummy time on the floor. Picture me chopping vegetables and stopping every minute to walk over to the girls and pop there errant binkies back into their mouths. It took me an hour to make dinner, set the table, and load the dishwasher. I'd planned on it taking that long and dinner was ready when Brandon got home.
On Saturday I decided I wanted to put the beaded monogram onto the girls' stockings. The girls decided that they HAD to be held. Picture both girls laying propped up in my left arm. There is a bowl with beads resting on their legs. I'm stringing beads onto a needle and thread with my right hand. Later the girls were content with laying next to me while I sewed the beads on the stockings.
My sister called me the other night. Picture me talking to her while charging my phone, pumping milk, and keeping a binky in Charlotte's mouth. By the way, lots of people have mentioned that they are afraid to call me because I might be napping. Go ahead and call me. I can ignore my phone if I am trying to sleep or otherwise busy. And the girls can sleep through ANYTHING so don't worry about waking them up.

During the night both of us get up if both twins wake up at the same time. Picture both of us sitting on the couch. I'm nursing one baby and Brandon is bottle feeding the other one. Both of us are sitting with our heads laying back on the couch. The room is absolutely silent except for the slurping of the babies. Words and names are too complicated at night. The girls names at night are "this one" and "that one."
My system of nursing one twin and bottle feeding the other twin is working out really well. (Take a look at all the milk in the fridge. That's about 450 ccs of expressed milk!) The other day both girls woke up and were hungry at the same time. Picture me sitting on the couch nursing one twin. The other twin is laying right next to her and is drinking from a bottle.

Obviously I have my hands full, but I love it! The other day I was thinking about all the high stress jobs I've had over the years. I thought about how this job may be stressful, but what I am doing is 100% meaningful to me.

We went on a date!

I love that Brandon is a twin because it means his parents are already experts at taking care of two babies at once. As a result we were able to go on a date on Friday night without any reservations about the competency of our baby sitters.

We went to the Ogden Christmas Village. We've gone here every other year since we were dating. Every little house has a cute Christmas display inside. Most of them are at kid eye level. Next year we will bring the girls.

I love how pretty all the little houses are when they are lit up. I love these lights more than the lights at Temple Square.
When we got home everything had gone well with the girls. Thanks Steve and Jacque!

Some more stuff

Here are some more pics of the girls. Lydia was sucking on Charlotte's nose seconds before I took this picture.

Lindsay C this picture is for you. I know you love pics where it looks like babies are bonking each other.

And Emily this one is for you so you can see them in the hats you made.
And here is a collection of some of video I filmed this week.

I could not ask for more

This week has been great! We've figured out two things that have made a huge difference.

1. We've figured out how to divide up taking care of the babies at night. Basically it is if one of them is awake then one of us gets up. If both girls are awake then both of us are up.

2. I only nurse one twin a day. Then I pump and feed the other twin with a bottle. I switch who nurses and who bottle feeds every day so they don't get used to one way or the other. This has been wonderful because now I have time to get (some) things done. It's also nice because other people can help feed the girls. Here is Brandon feeding Lydia.

We put our Christmas stuff up. I love decorating for Christmas. It's the highlight of the month for me. (Seriously, I think I like it more than Christmas Day)
I like to set up a new way to display everything every year.
This was my set up this year. I was going for a toy store window display look.
We still need to get stockings for Charlotte and Lydia.
After we set up the tree we always lay under it and look up at the pretty ornaments and lights. We did that this year with the girls. We told them that they were our favorite presents. I think we will probably turn this into an official holiday tradition. Who needs presents when you have family? This is Charlotte under the tree.
Here are the girls in their Christmas sleepers. (Thank you Kira) They wear these sleepers all the time so I had to get a picture of them in them while under the tree.
This is how Brandon spent his day off yesterday. He was sick of the dishwasher not quite cleaning all the dishes. He found the problems (poor craftsmanship and dish soap in the jet dry dispenser) and fixed them.
This is Brandon a few hours ago when I left him to go to the library and blog. What a man!

Life with twins

Here are the girls about 10 minutes after they came home for the first time.

I'll be honest, on the first full day home I thought I had ruined my life by having twins. The first night home had not gone very well. I spent most of the night holding the girls and trying to sleep on the couch. Lydia managed to wet the only two outfits I could find and so she spent half the night wearing just her diaper. The morning didn't change anything. I was practically in tears by the time Brandon got home from work. And within a few hours I was bawling. I felt like I would never have a conversation, thought, or moment that didn't revolve around the girls. I was tired, hormonal, emotionally drained, and suffering from oreo with drawls.

Fortunately these feelings didn't last. Brandon sent me to bed and took care of the girls for the next couple hours. He even got them ready for their doctors appointment. We went to the doctor's and then came home and I was sent back to bed. I was still crying when we went to bed for the night so Brandon gave me a blessing. I felt better after that.

Here are the girls sharing their cradle.

Over the next couple days life slowly began to feel like normal. We were able to clean up the apartment which helped immensely because coming home from the hospital was like returning from an 18 day camping trip - everything was out of place. We started figuring out places for all the baby stuff. I felt like civilization returned to our lives when we established the diaper changing station on top of the drier. (Thanks for the idea Emily) Up until then we had been changing diapers on the couch. We began to have conversations about things other than the girls. I was able to sleep in my own bed for several hours a night. I knew everything was going to be okay the day that Brandon replaced our kitchen faucet. There was something comforting in watching him walk by holding a hack saw - I'm still not sure why he needed the hack saw, but I liked seeing him with it.
After one week home we were on top of things enough to host Thanksgiving dinner for both our parents. This may sound crazy but Brandon relaxes by cooking. He's wanted to host Thanksgiving dinner all year, but it wasn't until Wednesday that we invited everyone. We knew our parents were planning on having low key dinners so we thought we should combine 3 low key dinners into one. Brandon loved making pies and stuffing the turkey. Our parents helped out by bringing some food and also doing the dishes afterward. They also held the babies which is always appreciated.

We've now been home for two weeks. I'm feel like I am getting the hang of things and establishing a system again. I keep telling myself that this may be the hardest thing I have ever done, but it is not the first hard thing I've done.

The girls are eating like crazy and growing. They were weighed at the doctor's yesterday. Charlotte is now 5 lbs and 12 oz. She has just about out grown her preemie clothes. Lydia is now 4 lbs 10 oz which is how much Charlotte weighed at birth. They are both super cute as you can tell from these pictures. I love that they don't have tubes and wires.

They sleep a lot. We are really lucky that they are oblivious to most noise. 18 days in the special care nursery trained them to sleep through beeps, alarms, and loud conversations. They also can sleep through each others cries. Recently they have started sleeping for 4 hours at a time which is very nice. Sometimes all three of us cuddle up on the couch for a nap in the afternoon. I love being close to my girls.
The girls were 4 weeks old on Sunday. We took them to Sacrament meeting. I thought that Charlotte would need to eat during the meeting and I hoped I would at least be able to stay in the chapel until after the sacrament. Instead she slept the whole meeting.
Here are the three of us on Monday November 29th. This is the girls due date. As challenging as this last month has been I'm glad I wasn't pregnant for it. I'm glad I've been able to spend it with my girls.
Brandon's birthday (his real one) was on Tuesday. If you aren't colorblind you can read how old he is. Both of us are older than 3 of our parents were when they first had kids.

So that's basically the last two weeks in a nut shell. This week the girls should move out of the living room and into their own room. We are also going to decorate for Christmas. I can't wait.