The Birthday!

So, I am going to finally post some pictures from the third birthday party that happened on April 18th.  Jacob and Claire were SO excited for their birthday party and their birthday cake and their birthday presents.  They had a lot of fun with their friends and with their cake and all of their presents.  Jacob was so cute to enthusiastically say "THANK YOU" to anyone who told him Happy Birthday and Claire was very sure to make sure people were aware that it was her birthday and Jacob's birthday too!  Here are a few highlights:

Jacob with his new cowboy hat.
Claire checking out a new present.
Jacob modeling the Superman cape that Aunt Camie made (Claire got a supergirl one too, but if you want to see them both go to Camie's blog...her kids will stand still for a picture).
Jacob is still telling people that he got a lawnmower...he LOVES his lawnmower.
I loved these when I was young, so I had to get one for Claire, but she is still a little small for it, so Sarah had to help her out.
Her new trike and helmet!
His new trike and helmet.
The birthday cake...let it be known that frosting cakes may be the thing that I despise the very most!  I made one big cake with a boy side and a girl side.  The party was a colors and letters party so we had colored baloons pink and blue cake with giant colored sprinkles....
And rainbow colored cake...
Colored Jell-O jigglers letters and lots of colored wrapping papers and napkins.  

"I need to use my finger!"

Here's a conversation Jacob and Trisha Casper (one of our friends who babysat our kids) had hile we were out in Portland:

Jacob (in a panic): I can't get it out!!!

Trisha: you can't get what out?

Jacob: I can't get - the boogie

Trisha (holding a tissue): okay, blow

Jacob: It won't come out - I need to use my finger

Trisha: uh - okay

Jacob: I got it!  I got the boogie!!!

Holy Moly...3!

My sweet babies just turned 3 (yesterday)!  I cannot believe it.  Look how grown up they look!

It was really not that long ago that they looked like this!
and this...
Actually, it was 3 years ago!
They had such a fun birthday and we just love watching their excitement and seeing their big personalities come out of their little bodies!  Birthday party pictures to come...

Portland Trip

A couple of weeks ago Jared and I took a quick trip to Portland, OR without the kids (thanks again to all of you who watched them for us).  We had a really great time seeing Portland for the first time and visiting some of our best friends.  While we were there we went out for Thai food in the Pearl District, skied at Mount Hood Meadows, had a fun party with games and food with some old friends and some friends that we met for the first time, did some quick hikes and saw lots of waterfalls, and had a Monte Cristo sandwich party at Jim and Mel's house.  We packed in as much as possible!

There are lots of big waterfalls!
Here is Jared with Jim and their little boy Bridger...we got to meet Jim and Mel (you might remember them from our Mexico trip) anyway...we got to meet there 2 little kiddos for the first time, Kacy was only about 8 weeks old.  Bridger loved Jared (he seems to have the effect on young children).
Here I am...EVERYTHING is so green in Oregon, mostly because there is moss growing up and down everything.
We had a perfect ski day...see all the snow in the trees, that was the amount of fresh powder we were skiing on and it was a lovely sunny day.
There is Mount Hood (our proof that it exists).  It was a very fun trip and we were so glad to see our friends!

Mother of Twins Perks

I belong to a mother of twins club.  It is a great perk to being a mother of twins because twice a year (fall and spring) they have a big sale.  If you are a member of the club you get to shop the night before the sale is open to the public.  It is HUGE!!!!  I have been shopping at these sales since I was big and pregnant with Jacob and Claire and I really outfit them almost completely at the sales.  I have gotten better at shopping each sale, since it does take some strategy.  I bought all of this stuff and a tricycle for just over $100.  I also picked up a great wagon for a friend and a pair of shoes for another friend.  Such a great perk!

Aunt Kaci (aka Peepee) and Toby come to visit

Ok, I am behind again...surprise surprise.  Anyhow, I FINALLY convinced my sister to come visit and in March she and her youngest, Toby, came to visit.  Toby and Claire and Jacob had so much fun together.  While she was here we went to Ikea, we ate Mexican food, we went to Louisville for our friends' sealing and went to the children's museum there, we went to the outlet malls, to the zoo, and to the Gap clearance center.  We had a lot of fun in a few short days.  Here are some pictures (Kaci got more and better pictures).

This is the view Jared had from the driver's seat on the way home from Louisville.  I was asleep in the passengers seat.
Claire and Jacob playing in the water.  Toby had so much fun at this area and actually dumped a huge pitcher of water down the side of some unsuspecting little girl (on accident).
In the rocket ready for take off!
The kiddos checking out the giant disk of tiny mirrors on the way in.
Jacob and Toby taking care of each other on the way to Mexican food.

Girls' weekend Chicago Style

So, once again I am so so behind.  So I will do a quick post to share some pictures from the fun girls' weekend that I had with my mom-in-law and sister-in-laws in Chicago.  The weekend activities were:

*dinner and gifts for Amber's birthday

*sleeping in

*shopping Michigan Avenue and finding great deals

*Make-overs

*Chicago Chocolate Tour

*Chicago style pizza

*Brunch and church with Amber's best friend Alyssa

*Art Museum

*dinner again!

*mini baby shower for Camie

*shopping some little specialty shops in a different shopping district in the city

*lots of chit-chat and bonding time

Camie with her baby shower gifts
Chicago style pizza (after makeovers and chocolate tour walking in the pouring rain)
Chocolate tour stop (also after makeovers and walking in rain)
Chocolate tour stop at 'More' cupcakes!
Amber with her Birthday gifts!

Thank you girls for such a fun weekend and a much needed get-away!

What a cute girl!

For all who have already read the last two posts and worry that Claire may be scarred when she sees what was written about her as a toddler, we want you to know that Claire is a really, really cute girl!  See!

A tale of two sleepers

Bedtime is always an adventure.  And I'm not just talking about overcoming the seemingly springloaded pillows that shoot our kids out of bed the instant their heads hit them... no, I'm talking about AFTER they are asleep!

A couple weeks ago, Claire decided she no longer wanted to sleep on her sheets at the head of her bed.  She wanted to sleep on top of the comforter at the foot of her bed.  and jammed into the corner by the wall.  It's like she lost something on the floor under the bed that she's trying to get!  Every night she's like this (side note: as I'm writing this, Claire is asleep horizontal to her footboard).  Also, she's a sprawler, taking more square feet on the bed than a 2-year-old should be able to cover.  Her drool makes her hair stick to her cheeks, so when we go in to check on her, we really can't even tell which way her face is facing!  And she snores.  Loud.  We can hear it through the wall in our room!  Sleeping seems like hard work for her!

Then, there's Jacob.  Normally on his pillow and under his covers.  With a little angelic look on his face.

By the way, Dani has since switched the sides of the bed that the pillow goes on - when Claire saw it the first time, she got a huge grin on her face... then stayed put for only 5 minutes after Dani left the room.

"In my airport"

Letting their imaginations run wild

These two little kids fight a fair share...but they are also really really good buddies.  Even in the last couple of weeks they have gotten so much better at playing together and they are constantly lost in their little imaginary world.

Here are some of the latest favorite games to play or things to imagine:

*Sacrament meeting (they say prayers and sing songs about sacrament meeting, they pretend to eat bread and water and say more prayers and sing more songs)

*Going to the Wild Things (this is from the book that Nana gave them "Where the Wild Things Are" now they have to get in a boat and travel to where the wild things are.

*That they are in the cartoons that they watch (they love to pretend Super Why and Claire is always Princess P with 'spelling word power'.  They also play Dragon Tales where Jacob will walk around calling 'Emmy, Emmy!!'and says 'Claire, you Emmy!?!?'  which Claire always agrees to and says 'Yeah, I Emmy' and so Jacob chases her around calling to Emmy.  Often they will assign characters to me or each other.  They also love to make car noises and be "Lighting the Queen (trans. Lightening McQueen).

*Going on a trip (always packing up their suitcases and backpacks and traveling the whole house).

 *Swimming in a 'swimming suit' (They find wrappers and paper and stick them to their shirts calling them 'wimming wuits' and travel to each bed in the house to swim).

*Night night (they put each other and anyone else around, or their stuffed animals, to bed several times every day).

*Talking for their toys (this is very new for them, but they have started to talk for their toys and have their toys interact with each other, sometimes their trains will talk to each other, or last night at Nana's Jacob had Buzz Lightyear and Claire had Woody and they were talking to each other imagining some scenario).

*Making meals and snacks (they prepare and we all eat MANY imaginary meals, snacks, and treat everyday).
Anyhow, those are some of their favorite things, but their are many other things that I get to witness them playing.  Just for the sake of recording, here are a few recent things they have said:

When my mom was bending down to give Claire a kiss her hair hung down in Claire's face and she told her "Your hair's a mess!"

We were headed to Nana's after church and Jacob (knowing exactly where we were headed) asked "where we going?" to which I replied "where do you think we are going?" He quickly told me "no, I talking to Claire" and then asked her again.  Claire replied "Ummm, we going to Nana's" so Jacob said "Oh, Ok, That be fun!"

My dad told Claire that she is a goofball, Claire told him "No, I not a goofball!" and he told her "yeah, you are a goofball!" She burst out in tears and came upstairs where I was, when I asked her what was wrong she said "I'm NOT a goofball... I want to stay upstairs!"

Valentine's Day...the tradition continues

So... for those of you out there that have driven past a white castle recently and when you read the sign about taking Valentine's Day reservation thought 'who would do that?'  Here is your answer...

And we did it last year too!  (For pictures look in the blog archives from last February!)  This year we got some friends to join us.  Here are our friends Denise (D-Cupps) and Nick (B-Cupps).  You might recognize Nick as the guy wearing the vest that was much to tight/short to the ugly sweater party... apparently it is a habit of his (that is Denise's shirt).
We ate lots of tiny burgers (sliders) in different varieties plus chicken rings, onion chips, cheese sticks and fries.  On Valentine's Day at White Castle (home of the 69 cent burger) They set a nice table with a candle, bring you menus and take your order and serve you on valentine plates.  The girls even get a red carnation.  Classy!  Also, for many of you who expressed concern for my health... I ate 4 sliders, one was a double plus tried all four sides that we got, and for the second year in a row... not even a stomachache!
After our big dinner we went to our other friends' house to play games, they got a good picture of the 4 of us!  Sorry B-Cupps, I couldn't resist!
We had a great time playing games and we are already excited for next February!  Let us know if you want to join!

For Parents of Multiples

An innovative bunk bed idea....Jacob and Claire found a place for all of the little ones that they take care of to take a nap.

Snow Days

It snowed all day yesterday, until the night, when it started to ice, and then it snowed all morning today.  Yesterday morning I took kiddos out to play in the snow.  Here they are all ready to go out!

(this picture is a side note....yesterday and today I shoveled our driveway and sidewalk...I am calling it my work out for those days...Anyhow, today I got all the snow off, but you can see from this one place that I kicked at for a bit that I left a huge sheet of ice over an inch thick on the whole driveway.)
Here is Claire yesterday enjoying her time outside...I love how her hair looks in the sun!
Jacob had a good time in the snow too.
The snow wasn't very sticky, so the snowman that we set out to build became a snow toddler...Jacob and Claire were very good helpers and continually reminded me that we needed a carrot for his nose.  I had to keep telling Jacob that we could not give him a nose until we gave him a head.  Anyhow, I only had baby carrots, so it was a good thing that he was so small.  His eyes are blueberries...and as you can see he has an A's ice cream sundae hat atop his head.
We also made snow angels, if you look really close you can see from left to right: Claire angel, Jacob angel, Mommy angel.
This is what the snow toddler looks like today...he got a nice ice coating and a little extra snow.
Maybe we will get out this afternoon, but I am afraid that the layer of ice that you step on first, then sink into later might be too frustrating for Jacob and Claire to walk around in.

Night Terrors

Last night, around 3:30, we woke up to Claire screaming. It's something that occasionally happens, but this time it sounded different. Dani held her for a minute, and brought her into the hall. She had this far-off look in her eyes, then would get a look of absolute horror, have a slight shake, and scream for 10-15 seconds. Then she would calm down for a 10-15 seconds, and repeat. The ceiling and her blanket, which she was holding in her hand, both seemed especially scarey for her. We turned on a light, hugged her, let her be free, and finally, she seemed to snap out of it after 10 minutes or so. With the light on, we noticed that each time she screamed, her eyes dialated. She was so shaken by it all, that she was trembling for 30-40 minutes after, and one eye was more dialated than the other. I think it was 4:30 by the time we went back to sleep.



She woke up again just before 6:30 doing the same thing. This time, we turned on the hall light to try to get her to snap out of it. She would look both Dani and I in the eye, then get that look of horror, shake, and scream. She would then calm, sometimes asking for a drink of water, and then repeat her episode. I gave her a blessing, and prepared myself to take her to the hospital. When I took her downstairs to get our coats on, she finally calmed. Again, it was around 10 minutes (Dani says 5, but I think it was 10, so it was probably some where closer to Dani's number!)



As a side note, I want to express my gratitude for the Priesthood. After the second episode, we were all sitting on our bed, and Claire wanted both Dani and I to say a prayer. She knew she had received a blessing and seemed grateful for it.



Dani tells me Claire had a short episode after her nap today. She remembers being scared and screaming. If we ask what she was scared of, the answers are: mama, blanket, cheek, and vacuum (though that one was not as consistent of an answer and may have been because she IS actually scared of vacuums)



We've experienced what our pediatrician determined to be night terrors with Jacob when he was younger. His would typically come between 11:30 and 12:00, and I remember being afraid of the look in his eyes, which I remember thinking looked very empty and detatched. Jacob's were pretty scary, but Claire's are absolutely terrifying for a parent. These are very different than bad dreams. I know my kids have experienced bad dreams (like your sister biting your ball!), but these are far more traumatizing for all involved! Words cannot adequately describe the feelings Dani and I were having as we watched Claire go through this.



Has anyone else ever experience these? I sympathize with anyone else who has.



I've been reading up on them today, and I found out that 3-6% of kids have them, and adults can have them, too! How is it that our kids get some of the weirdest things? Milk allergies, which they had when they were infants, occur in 2-3% of kids. So, the chance that both kids get both symptoms: about 1 in 300,000! (I thought this post needed some numbers)

Five Years (and counting)

Today is our 5th anniversary and I just cannot believe how fast five years has gone and how much we have done and changed in five years.  I apologize now for the abundance of pictures and that none of them are of the people that you really come to the blog to see, but it is our anniversary and 5 years is a lot of pictures...rest assured that there are many that I did not put on and that I spent a lot more time posting than you will reading and looking.
January 15, 2004 was a very cold day at the Mount Timponogas temple, it was during a long 'inversion' in the Utah Valley and surrounding areas.  We were both so happy that we could not stop smiling and because I had been using those Crest Whitening strips my teeth were pretty sensitive to the cold, so the smiling kind of hurt.  Something that everyone always finds interesting about our wedding day is that both Jared and I went to class that morning (we were married in the afternoon).
These are the shoes I got married in, I bought them for $9 at Target and then added lace laces and sequence and stuff with a glue gun (I wonder where they are now, I would like to have them).  

I loved going through lots of pictures from the adventures that Jared and I have had in the past 5 years.  We have had a lot of fun together and we are such great friends, it is still amazing to me how much more you can love a person after time and experiences together.
This is one of our Red River Gorge cabin with friends trips.
Hiking near Jackson Hole, Wyoming (I was looking for pictures of just us two, but all of our hiking in the past 3 years had kids in backpacks, so at least they aren't looking).
Pizza Tasting party.
A's game in Cleveland.
Murder mystery party #2.
Murder Mystery party #1.
Ugly Christmas Sweater party.
(The bulk of our pictures together were pre-kids/pre-digital/pre-this computer...and I had to take a lot out of the one and only scrapbook I have ever made, so it took a long time, and I condensed them.)  Camping in goblin valley.  Opening night of "The Incredibles."  BYU graduation.  Sand snowman on first Hilton Head Trip.
Angel's Landing in Zion.  Sunlight mountains near Cody, WY.  Boat tour in Chicago.  Mountain Biking in one of our favorite places in Utah.
Hilton head trip number 2.
White Castle Valentines Day #1 (we plan on this year being #2).
Playa Del Carmen, Mexico trip.
Snorkel ready on that same trip.
I think this was for a wedding...but we look nice, right!?!?

Through five years we have enjoyed numerous camping, hiking, mountain biking, snow skiing, and waterskiing trips.  We have finished college, started a career, bought a house, and added two little kiddos to our family.  We have hosted several fun parties for our friends and come up with ideas for several more.  We have been to several family reunions, family and friend trips, and a few trips for just us two.  We have learned that we are terrible painters, ok (but not great) gardeners, and so so fix-it people.  I am so glad I married a man that encourages my sense of adventure and is adventurous, a man that loves the things that I love and loves to learn new things with me.

I am so grateful for the past five years with my best friend and the love of my life.  Jared is an excellent husband and a great father.  He is so supportive and makes me laugh every day.  I love the way it feels to be with him and that I know I can be with him for eternity.  Thanks for loving me back...happy anniversary!