Claire's Dance Recital

Claire spent the last 8 months doing ballet.  She seems to enjoy it.  Her toes naturally point outward, so she quickly learned the first and second positions!

Dani had her own concert on the day of Claire's recital, so Dani got to go to the dress rehearsal (where cameras were permitted!)

It was a cute performance.  The song they danced to was called "I Love Berries," appropriate for this berry-rich area.

Claire and her friend Taylor both danced in the recital in their beautiful makeup and glitter!

The Door Game

Liam's favorite thing to play with while he's rolling around is doors.  It's pretty entertaining to watch.

Tulip Festival

One of the things we love about Portland is the various festivals that happen here.  In April is the Wooden Shoe Farm Tulip Festival.  We had a gorgeous Saturday with blue skies.

Of course, we had to get pictures of our kids in the wooden shoes.

Babies were really excited to be there.  They really love being outside.  It's kind of a 2-person job to get both babies smiling and looking at the camera at the same time, especially when there are colorful flowers around and lots of people watching.

When we take pictures like this one, we often get a small crowd watching the two happy little animated babies.  There was at least 1 person snapping photos along with us.  I sometimes tell people having twin babies is like bringing the traveling circus along!

Kate and Liam LOVE being thrown in the air.  Since Jacob and Claire didn't as much, I have probably thrown Kate and Liam twice as much as I regularly would.  Also, it's a good workout!

We were reminded just how sensitive to the sun our two little redheads are - even April sun in Oregon - as they both ended up with a little pink on their cheeks, even though Liam spent much of the day wearing (and trying to take off) a hat.

There were lots of different colors of tulips.  The yellow ones were the fullest and from a distance looked the most brilliant.  There were some interesting dark colored, almost black tulips.

They had a couple steam powered tractors.  Jacob was quite interested in those... okay, I thought they were pretty cool too.  All were functioning, and a few were moving around in the fields.

Kiddos got to take a little ride in the wooden shoe around the farm.  Since it was not long after Jacob's surgery, we were a little worried about the dust, but it worked out just fine and he didn't get dust in his eye.

We thought it would be funny to take a picture of babies here.  I think I'm holding both!

Both Liam and Kate don't mind sitting directly on the grass, which is a big difference from how Jacob and Claire would do anything they could to keep their feet and hands away!  Often, we'll catch Liam and Kate pulling grass and either eating it or throwing it.

Kate was really happy in her backpack

Dani was happy to have the smaller child!

 Both Jacob and Claire have new poses they were trying out that day apparently, as seen below and in other pictures.

Right before we left for the tulip festival, we found a long-lost camera in the pocket of Dani's kid-carrier hiking backpack.  The batteries still worked, so we let Jacob take the camera.  He ended up taking about 100 pictures in pretty short order.  Below are 2 of the pictures that turned out pretty good (there were a couple more).

The subjects of Jacob's pictures included people not looking, the tractor doing the hayride (there were lots of that one), the sky, the sun, the ground, Dani's hip, my hip, a 7Up cup, and other random things.  It was pretty funny to go through his pictures.

Jacob's Eye Surgery

Last month, Jacob had his eye surgery to correct his lazy eye.  He got to choose the outfit he wore, so he wore his pajamas.  The Children's Hospital opened a couple months ago and is beautiful!

 After he got admitted into pre-op, he got a medication that made him pretty calm.  He was definitely still himself, just a 10 MPH version instead of the normal 75 MPH!

 The surgery went well.  It took about 1.5 hours, and Dani and I were glad when it was done.  Jacob came out with a large patch over his eye, and as the anesthetic wore off, he was pretty sad.  He wanted the patch off, and once it was off, he really wanted to be able to open his eye.  Cars 2 wasn't even enough to cheer him up for a while.  He did get to have about 5 different popsicles.

His eye remained quite red for a few days, and we put ointment into it to help.  Jacob took a day or two before he started wanting to run around and play as normal.

 At this point, it appears that the surgery has been successful.  Dani will take him in to the eye doctor this week to have a follow-up visit.  His eye is still a little pink, and some of that may not go away, but it is aligned.  He continues to patch about 2 hours per day.  I also think he's actually using his weaker eye more than I thought he would - his depth perception appears to be better than it was a couple months ago.

I recently re-read the talk from April's General Conference by President Packer, "And a Little Child Shall Lead Them" where he says, "One of the great discoveries of parenthood is that we learn far more about what really matters from our children than we ever did from our parents."  I have been inspired by the faith and trust Jacob put in Dani and I to go through this surgery.  We knew he would go through some discomfort in his recovery, but his life would ultimately be better for having the surgery.  I have likened Jacob's surgery to our life and our Father's desire for us to go through experiences, even if there is discomfort, so we can grow and ultimately be better.  I am grateful for Jacob's example and hope I can have the same faith as shown by my young son.

Gettin' Around

Liam and Kate started sitting quite a bit earlier than Jacob and Claire did.  Liam had an interesting (and painful-looking) way of reaching in front of himself to get a toy and to get onto his belly.

Babies are scooting around the floor now.  Liam has been army-crawling for a month or two, and Kate has started in the last month.  They've managed to find a lot of fun things to play with.  One day, Kate found the phone book. Liam was quick to join in the fun!

 One big difference with the second set of twins is that we don't have nearly as much control of what is on the floor... who knows how Liam rolled over this chocolate!

Liam sometimes likes to lay on his back and scoot around the floor.  One night, he found a book to read/chew on while he scooted around the floor for about 30 minutes.

 They are very happy to be able to explore, and I love it when I come home and babies scoot over to greet me.  They're not pulling themselves up yet, but it isn't long before Dani and I will need to move another level of stuff!

T-Ball Season

It's T-Ball season, and for the second season in a row, Jacob is on the Scrappers.  His entire team from last year went to the older league, so he got an entire new team.

Jacob got a new bat for his birthday, and he's done well hitting.  He almost always gets a hit with the coach pitching the ball.  When I took pictures of him hitting, I noticed that he sticks his tongue out when he swings!  Ha! 

Jacob's ability to concentrate has improved a lot this year.  He pays attention and, for the most part, does what his coaches ask.

One of his favorite things to do is tag people out.  On the last batter, he likes to get the ball and stand in front of home plate tagging people out.  One game, he was playing third base, and the ball was hit to right field.  Jacob sprinted there, got the ball from his teammate, and ran home in time to tag 2 people out.  He has 3 triple plays so far this season!  (coaches have recently changed the gameplan so they are to throw the ball to first and hold it on the last batter... probably a good thing!)

Jacob's fan club has 2 new members this year!  We normally bring a blanket and eat breakfast on Saturday games or dinner on weekday games.  I'm sure they will end up watching a lot of their older brother and sister's sporting events!

We've been lucky to have beautiful weather this year for t-ball games (over 2 straight weeks without rain - in May!).  It has been fun to watch Jacob's excitement for t-ball and to see his abilities improve this year.

Missing these faces?

Because I know you all read this blog for pictures of my kids here are a few little treasures of the youngest from my phone to tide you over. Can you believe it has been 10 months?

Happy 31 Jared!

On May 2 Jared turned 31... wow!  Anyhow, we had company here (more on them in a later post) and so I took advantage of the chance to have a silly party for Jared.  He loves the movie Despicable Me, mostly because he thinks the minions are hilarious.  So, yes, we threw a Despicable Me birthday party for a grown man, and I am pretty sure it made him very happy.  Taylor and Hayley and I dressed up as minions for the occasion.

 We also made Minion cupcakes.

 Jared was a good sport and seemed impressed with it all.

 Hayley and Claire and Jacob also made a fun game of pin the mouth on the minion and Jacob made sure that everybody played.

 Claire dressed up as one of the girls from the movie (they have a little dance recital).

 Happy Birthday sweetie... can't believe I am married to such an old man, but I also can't believe I am married to such a great guy.

I love this guy... he is a loving and helpful husband, an energetic and happy father, a great provider, my best friend and the love of my life.

Hawaii Trip

Jared and I had an amazing time in Hawaii in April, we did so much in so little time and also managed to relax.  We went to Mauii and stayed at a great Sheraton resort.  We ate great Hawaiin food and non-Hawaiin food while we were there, but probably loved the Hawaiin shave ice the most.  The resort we were at had a black rock cliff right out in the water so we were able to enjoy some cliff jumping and great snorkeling right there.  Some of the things we enjoyed while we were there were massages, a mani/pedi for me, a day with a rental car where we went beach hopping south of where we were staying, a catamaran snorkeling tour, an ATV tour to some waterslides into a pond in the mountains/hills, a big Precoa (the company Jared works for) celebration dinner, and a luau.  We also enjoyed lots of time on the beach, by the pool and lots of time in the ocean.  We loved exploring Lahaina, going to find the only place to eat open past 11 (which was pretty much a bar with surprisingly good food) and a night of dancing at Lahaina's only night club with a group of about 17 Mormon parents without their kids (at least 2 of which were pregnant)... we were a sight to behold!  So... for those who like to look at a million of someone else's vacation photos, here you go ( I did only choose a small portion of what I had).

 Precoa celebration event night

 Jared, Craig, and Jim on the catarmaran.

 A bunch of our friends in the hot tub late one night .  Boys

 Girls

 More catamaran... Mel, Jen, Dani.

 The luau venue.

Catamaran tour... by the way there was so much coral and so many interesting things to look at in the water where they took us snorkeling.

 After the luau the men were pretty excited :)

 Dance club crew.

 Jared calls this my dancing face.

 Jared on his turn driving the ATV

 Waterslides.

 Me and Mel at the top of the waterslides.  We had the best pineapple I have ever had on this tour.

 This was the view from the place we parked at the water.... you can see the ocean and another island out there.

 It was a dirty adventure.

Fish tacos from a roadside truck on beach hopping day.

 The waves at big beach were so big when we were there... Jared had a great time playing in them.

 There was the funniest couple with metal detectors at big beach... I had to take a picture of Jared to capture one of them...if only I could have gotten him too.  Jared kept telling me he had some change to toss out.

 Lava flow area.

 View from the hotel lobby

 So many great plants everywhere.

 Shave ice...mmmm

 Banyan tree (this picture does not do this tree justice in any way, but we went at night with only an iphone for a camera).

 Anyway... I am missing so many pictures and so many things, but we had such a great time with so many friends and just the two of us.  A HUGE thanks to Nana who flew to Portland and braved life with all the twins on her own so that we could take this trip.  I cannot wait to get back to Hawaii some day!