Mormon.org

I've been sick this week so I haven't done anything crafty. I really haven't done anything besides feed the girls and read. I was thinking that I wouldn't have anything to post about this week but then I read the January Ensign.

There is a special insert in the January Ensign that talks about Mormon.org. Specifically it talks about the profiles that you can create about yourself that explain why you are a member of the church. People interested in the church can read the profiles and learn about the types of people who are LDS. It sounded easy enough so I decided to create my own.

I just barely created my profile. It's not great yet - I want to add a lot more detail. But I am proud that I did it.

Create your own profile by clicking here or going to Mormon.org and clicking on "create a profile." It will ask you to sign in. If you don't have an account already set up then you will need your member number (it's on your temple recommend) and your birthday (You have to be over 18). Then you just answer a couple questions and fill in a few text boxes. The site prompts you on the type of things you should say. Go try it out.

We went on a walk

We bought the girls baby backpack carriers for Christmas this year. We tried them out last Thursday.

We just went on a walk around the neighborhood. But it was so nice to get out!
I haven't been on a walk since the day before the girls were born.
The girls enjoyed the carriers and were asleep the whole time. Next time we use them I hope it will be for a hike.
On Saturday we went to the baby shower for my sister in law. My niece really wanted to hold the girls. I figured it was better to let her hold them for a few minutes than to have her hovering for several hours. So I had her use hand sanitizer and sit on the couch. She loved holding Lydia.
Later she held Charlotte. Both girls loved meeting their only (for now) girl cousin.
Later in the day one of my nephews came into the living room. He put on hand sanitizer like he had seen his cousin do. Then he came over and looked at me as if to say, "I ready to hold the baby." It was so cute how he knew what he needed to do to hold the baby. So I let him hold Charlotte for a second.
Here is a movie of the girls being super cute. I wish they were always like this.

First Year of Girls Camp

Note: I wrote most of this when I was 14. I'm glad I did because I don't remember all the specifics of what happened - especially in regards to the cow.

The highlight of the summer when I was 12 was Rough Camp. It was held the week of July 22-25 at the Pine Valley Campground in the Uinta Mountains. We started Tuesday at 7:30 in the morning. We all met at Valerie M's house and got our stuff loaded up. Then we chose what car we would ride in. I was in Sharon N's van. We were the last to leave and we had to go back for Valerie's coat. Despite that we made it to the campsite first. We were greeted by the 4th year girls who had spent the night up at the site as part of a certification requirement. They told us that they froze.

We unpacked and set up camp. My ward was assigned a site at the bottom of three slopes. It was basically in a small valley. Harmony S, Rachel J, and I were the "camp babies" of our ward. We were given bottles and binkies to show that it was our first year of camp. That night we were taken along with the other first year girls in the stake on a Snipe Hunt. I knew that there were no such things as snipes, and I though the whole thing was pretty pointless. But there were some girls who believed the whole thing.

On Wednesday we were all late for flag ceremony, but Sharron took the blame. She had to carry a rock with a snail painted on it named "Snail Burtha" around everywhere to show that she was late for flag ceremony.

At lunch it started to rain so we broke the rules and started to eat in our tents. I had to go to the bathroom so Lessie K went with me. While we were in the bathroom it started to rain extra hard. We ran back to the tents, and tried to wait out the storm. We heard loud cries from the other tents. Lessie went out to check on what was happening. She told us girls to stay in the tent. I looked outside and saw all the water from the rain flowing down the the steepest of the three hills and flowing straight for us. The tent I was in was on an incline so no water stayed under my tent. However, the other two tents had lakes starting to form under them. Water was rising up and starting to go into the tents!

Amy R wouldn't let us out of our tent so we worked on saving our own stuff. Teresa P was an excellent leader and helped us get calm. We could hear the other girls in our ward singing and dancing in the rain so we pushed Amy aside and ran our into the rain. The girls were digging a river to try to get the water out from under their tents. We joined in. Harmony had a scuba fin and used it to push the water out of the lake and into the river. All this time we were singing a new version of "The Noah Song" it when like this.

Oh the lord said to Susan (the stake camp director)

There is gonna be a floody floody

Get those girls out of the muddy muddy

Children of the lord (clap clap clap)

Somebody was taping us and the other wards were taking pictures and laughing at us. (By the way I have no pictures from this year of camp, so if anyone reading this has pictures I would LOVE copies.) We finally go rid of most of the water and got cleaned up, but we were faced with the problem of where to sleep. Our tents were too wet. Some of the other wards were able to offer us two extra tents that were on opposite sides of the camp ground and we were grateful for them.

It was guest night. My parents came up since my dad was the bishop. They ate dinner and stayed for a while, but there was nothing they could do since camp hadn't been canceled. They did take home Jenny B because she wasn't feeling well and had planned on going home that night anyway. That night I slept in a tent that had a door that didn't shut. I also had a damp blanket. I froze! It was the first of several cold nights I have spent in the Uintas.

I got out of bed on Thursday because I figured it was warmer outside than in. I was right. We packed lunches for the hike. We went on a hike to nowhere in particular, but it was a pretty hike and very fun. The group split up and some people went back to camp, but I was in the group that kept on going. My group hiked for a while and then ate lunch and played in a stream. After that we turned around and headed back to the road. Then we split up again. Most of the people stayed and waited for cars to come pick them up, but I was with the group that decided to walk back to camp. I figured it was July 24, 1997 and the pioneers had walked into the valley 150 years ago today. The least I could do was walk back to camp.

The group consisted of Lynn A, Jenifer, and me. We walked for a long time along a trail. Eventually we heard the girls laughing and we followed the sound right into camp. Something was different - we now had a large canopy over our picnic benches.

This is the story of how my ward got the canopy: The girls in my ward were too hot to go into their tents so they decided to go get the stake's canopy. They went up to Susan J and asked, "Can we borrow a Can-o-Peas?" Susan said she didn't have a can of peas, but that the 11th ward might. My ward went down to the 11th ward area and recruited them to help. They went back to the Stake area, picked up the canopy poles, and carried the canopy back to the 5th ward area. That was when my little group walked into camp.

We sat down and started painting our nails with the other girls. The J.C's came down and told us that it was time for camp pictures. We knew what they were really trying to do because we could see other girls waiting in the trees to get the canopy back. We went up to the stake area anyway because we knew we could always get the canopy back again.

The J.C's ended up taking our cow Bessie. Bessie was our life size wooden mascot. We gave back the canopy, but they wouldn't give back Bessie. Sharon went down to her van to have a meeting to plan what to do next. She ended up finding Bessie under her van. She had parked so far down the road the kidnappers hadn't realized the van was one of ours. We brought Bessie back to camp, but the stake stole her again.

Sharron had brought up face crayons so she drew war paint designs on our faces. We attacked the Stake leaders. We tried to tie Susan up but it was no use. We retreated and decided to declare peace. We went back up to the Stake area and declared peace, but they still didn't give Bessie back. We gave up and went back to painting our nails. Later the entire Stake camp down with our cow. They had put hearts on her that said "heart attack." Then they gave us a lesson on what sounds each of the animals make because Hope A had accidentally yelled, "Give us our pig back." They left us with our dead cow and we made plans for that night.

At flag ceremony we were purposely late. We ran Bessie in on a cot that looked like a stretcher. We hooked Styrofoam cups up to Sharon's overall suspenders. Then we rubbed them together, yelled clear, and pretended to defibrillate Bessie. We even made her look like she jumped by putting our feet under the cot and kicking at the appropriate time. We all cheered that she was alive.

Later it was testimony meeting. We were late so we had to sit the furthest away from the fire. I got up to bear my testimony so I could be by the fire and get warm. That meeting lasted until 11:00 pm. Then it was time for the ward testimony meeting. We went into the woods and bore our testimonies, we also talked about positive things we saw in each other. We started making too much noise so the Stake sent someone out to tell us to be quite. It was around 1:00 am at this point. We went back to our area and decided to all sleep in the bigger of the two tents that were provided for us by the other wards. We fit 18 girls into a tent that was supposed to fit 10.

We realized we lost Bessie so we went out looking for her. We finally found her in the boy's bathroom. We decided to do something in return to the Stake leaders. We first put Bessie on top of Susan's car, but then we got a better idea. We got the guards to let us take the canopy again and we put it over the door to Susan's tent. Then we got rope and tied it around the posts to made a corral. Then we put Bessie into the corral. We finally made it to bed around 3:30 am.

We got up around 7:00 am. The Stake leaders had already moved the canopy back over their tables. We found Bessie hanging from the flag pole. We got her down and then we packed up. We drove home half asleep and then we still had to clean and dry our soaking tents. I finally got home in the afternoon. I had never had such a fun filled week in my life. I couldn't wait for the next year and the adventures that it would contain.

Inspiration: Know your limits

Here is a funny example of what happens when you don't know what you are volunteering yourself for. I love this comic and I cut it out of the paper 6 years ago to remind me why it is important to know your limitations.

I try operate within my limits. For example I didn't work during the last 4 months of my pregnancy. I didn't work because I knew by the time I found a new job and was trained I would probably be on bed rest. However, I couldn't help feel guilty about not working - especially when I wasn't on bed rest yet. In October I was listening to conference and heard the talk by Elder Uchtdorf. Among other things he said:

"Have you ever been in an airplane and experienced turbulence? The most common cause of turbulence is a sudden change in air movement causing the aircraft to pitch, yaw, and roll. While planes are built to withstand far greater turbulence than anything you would encounter on a regular flight, it still may be disconcerting to passengers.

What do you suppose pilots do when they encounter turbulence? A student pilot may think that increasing speed is a good strategy because it will get them through the turbulence faster. But that may be the wrong thing to do. Professional pilots understand that there is an optimum turbulence penetration speed that will minimize the negative effects of turbulence. And most of the time that would mean to reduce your speed. The same principle applies also to speed bumps on a road.

Therefore, it is good advice to slow down a little, steady the course, and focus on the essentials when experiencing adverse conditions.

This is a simple but critical lesson to learn. It may seem logical when put in terms of trees or turbulence, but it’s surprising how easy it is to ignore this lesson when it comes to applying these principles in our own daily lives. When stress levels rise, when distress appears, when tragedy strikes, too often we attempt to keep up the same frantic pace or even accelerate, thinking somehow that the more rushed our pace, the better off we will be.

From this talk I learned that it is okay to slow down and take things easy sometimes. It reminded me that I was doing something far more important that working and earning money - I was helping our twins to grow. I'm certain that the girls would have been born a lot earlier if I had been dealing with the stresses from a job (especially the one I quit).

To read all of Elder Uchtdorf's talk click here. To see the website where I found the comic click here.

Valentine's Day Decorations

I'm always sad when we take down the Christmas decorations. To make up for the sudden lack of color I always decorate for Valentines Day. It's my favorite holiday so it makes sense that I would decorate for it a month in advance.

This year I wanted to use all my glass vases that will probably start disappearing over the next few months as I start baby proofing. So I put every vase I owned on top of the TV stand and filled them up with ribbon in Valentine's Day colors. The overall effect is awesome and I love looking at it while I nurse.

The top shelve of our bookcase has an aviation theme. The plaque says, “That’s all very fine and good, but what does it have to do with flying an airplane?" From Elder Uchtdorf's talk last October.
One top of the book cases I arranged some of the other things that will disappear into boxes once the baby proofing begins.

Smiles!

Brandon just barely recorded and sent this to me with his phone.

As big as (some) newborns

I'm often asked, "how big are the girls now?" For the past month I haven't had an accurate answer because we haven't had a dr's appointment. I was glad not to know because it meant the girls were healthy.

Well on Thursday they had their 2 month check up and so we found out how much they weigh. Here are the stats. The percents are calculated based off of babies that are one month old because the girls were 4 weeks early.

Charlotte

Height: 20 3/4 inches 45%

Weight: 7 lbs 3 oz 10%

Head: 35.5 cm 45%
Lydia

Height: 20 1/4 inches 20%

Weight: 6 lbs 7 oz 3% (Yes Lydia is bigger than only 3% of 1 month olds)

Head: 35 cm 10%

So my girls are long and skinny. I was a little concerned about their weight percents until the Dr reminded me that they are twins. (Somehow I forgot) And so it was okay for them to be smaller than single babies. Still it's funny to think that both girls are smaller than their Dad was at birth (7 lbs 11 oz) and Lydia is smaller than I was when I was born (6 lbs 13 oz). I like that they are small because it means I can carry them both around easily.

Our next Dr's appt isn't until April. That means we have a glorious two months without any checkups. Do you know how long it has been since I have been able to go two months without seeing a Doctor? It's been since May of last year. I'm going to love the freedom! Hopefully the girls stay healthy so we don't have to go in for anything in the meantime.

In other news, the girls are starting to sleep through the night, or at least close enough to it. Here is how I am faking a full nights sleep. After I feed the girls around 8:00 PM I let them have tummy time for about 2 hours. They grunt and cry and squirm for about an hour until they are worn out and they settle down. Then at 11:00 Brandon and I feed them, change their diapers, wrap them up tight, stick them in their cradle, give them binkies, sing to them, have family prayer, and then shut the door and let them cry.

We get ready for bed, say our prayers, and read scriptures. Then if the girls are still crying we go back into their room and give them their binkies one last time. After that they are on their own. And usually they are done crying within 5 to 10 minutes. The apartment is usually silent after midnight. The girls will usually sleep until 5:30 or 6:00. (Though there is an occasional 3:30 AM feeding) We feed the girls and then go back to sleep until about 8:30 when Brandon goes to work and the girls usually wake up again. After that feeding I can sometimes get them back to sleep, but usually one or the other wants to stay awake which means I'm awake too.

The girls are getting more alert and expressive each day. Lydia even smiled while she was awake yesterday. She also went cross-eyed right after that so I'm not sure how in control of her face she was, but it's a start. Charlotte loves to look at things. We've discovered that she LOVES to look at our green bookcases. If she is crying we take her over to look at them and she usually calms right down.

Brandon is very cute with the girls. Last week I came home from blogging to find one baby asleep on the couch and the other in the little baby chair. The baby chair vibrates if it has batteries, but we didn't have any extra batteries. That didn't stop Brandon, he rigged it up to his wall adapter thingy and it ran off the AC current from the electrical outlet.

I think I'm adjusted to this parenting thing. For a while there I thought I didn't need naps anymore, but then I realized I still did. So around 3:00 everyday I make sure I lay down and sleep for a little bit.

I'm starting to get more done around the house again. I'm able to get dinner ready before Brandon gets home now. I even dusted the other day! And I vacuumed the living room for the first time since before the girls were born. Every day I usually have one big goal like do laundry or file bills or something like that. If I get the big goal done it is a successful day. Anything else I get done is just bonus. I make sure I'm dressed everyday too because that makes me feel more like doing things. Overall I am loving being a Stay at Home Mom (even if I hate that title).