Teething and Crawling

The babies are now 10 months! Its been 2 months since my last update, sorry!

Life with twins is busy! It gets so much easier in ways and so much harder in others! When they were born I couldn't wait till one or both could hold their bottle so I could make the other's bottle or just have one hand free. Now they hold their own bottles but Bradley (who is now 5 pounds bigger which is an improvement from 6 1/2) will finish his bottle first and then steal Kiersten's and finish hers too if I'm not watching.

The reason it gets harder is they are both crawling and pulling themselves up to stand- everywhere! And they find the tiniest things I thought I had picked up to put right into their mouths! Oy Vey! The babies favorite thing is to chase me around the house and see what I am doing in the kitchen or back bedroom. First Kiersten will pop her head in the room and then Bradley is always a second behind.

Kiersten started crawling almost two months ago and Bradley would just roll after her. When we visited Modesto and the end of May/beginning of June Bradley started to hop like a frog on hardwood floors- it was the cutest thing! I never got it on camera because he would always stop and look at you and smile and then when the camera got put away he would go back at it. Also while visiting family the babies fell in love with dogs! Every time they see a dog now they kick and scream and wiggle around- it is VERY cute! Kiersten tries to chase our friend's wiener dog Pete- a very loud, very annoying, small and fast dog.

Kiersten standing up using my sister's boxer Tyson.

Bradley got his top right tooth in this morning and now has all four front teeth. He has been making everyone miserable with these last two teeth! I am so glad they are here and I am so not looking forward to his molars coming in- I hear that's even worse.

Kiersten only has her bottom two still but her top gums are sore so they will probably be showing up in no time.

The babies love to talk to each other and they babble all day long. They mostly say Dadada which I say "no its mamama! I'll give you a cookie if you say mama!" :)

Actually, they were being nice and playing together this morning which is rare because they fight over the same toy ALL the time! They started by standing and playing with this block toy and then they moved together to play with every stand up item in the room until they had visited each one. It was so cute to see them crawling and talking side by side on the toys.

I have been taking the babies swimming once to twice a week at my friend Michelle's pool in her apartment complex. The babies LOVE the water! Kiersten is just a natural and when you hold her on her tummy laying in the water she kicks her legs like a frog.

Bradley has fun but gets scared easily. He's not too much a fan of the big turtle head and prefers to use Kiersten's star or to turn himself around and see what is going on in back of him.

One more thing about their weight differences- people are so nosey! I have been collecting the funniest stories from people's curiosity. When Kiersten was 4 months I took just her to the grocery store and everyone asked if she was a newborn. I said no she is a twin and was born 6 weeks early. One lady asked- where's her twin? Did it die?? I replied- nope probably playing video games at home with his Dad. Then it evolved into twins eh? Oh good your done! One lady made me so mad at Costco! She saw the twins and said oh twins, your done then. What are they boy and girl? Good your definitely are done and don't need any more kids. I said- Well thanks! I'll go home and tell my Husband you made that decision about our family for us!

I know it was rude but its frustrating to get that said to you everywhere you go! I must have heard "Oh good, your done!" statement at LEAST over 100 times- no exaggerations!

The new question from strangers is- "How far apart are they? They can't be twins. Are they both yours?" This one is funny. I just say that they are and he is 5 pounds bigger. Once I teased a lady and said "They are nine months to the DAY!" but then I laughed and said the truth.

Traveling and 8month update

It has been a CRAZY two months since I posted my last blog! The twins are sick and tired of traveling and Kiersten has stranger anxiety and at times only wants Adam or I to hold her. After we got home from Maryland then Modesto for a week we were home for a little bit but then went to Utah for Adam's mission reunion and then we were lucky enough to get tickets for Sunday morning session- SCORE! After we got home from there we took ANOTHER trip down to Modesto for a funeral for Adam's cousin Kimmy.

Back to the Utah trip- the four of us rented a car (because the van is a gas hog) and that little Kia Sorento has a LOT of room! We got almost as much stuff as our van would in the car. We drove all night and got there about 8 in the morning. Bradley cut his first tooth during the drive and those last four hours were miserable!! At one point we pulled over to calm Bradley down and while burping him he threw up all over me, himself, my blanket- ect! So Adam had to go unpack the trunk get me a change of clothes and repack the clothes in snow and bitter wind- what a trooper!

On Saturday before Adam's mission reunion we went and toured Temple Square because I have never done that before. When we walked in the first people we saw were Richard and Krisha Jones! So we took the tour of the visitor's center and Tabernacle with them. The stake had given them extra tickets for conference so they gave them to us for the Sunday morning session.

Later that night Adam and I went to his reunion which was a ton of fun. But on the way there I could not believe how church buildings are EVERYWHERE! And I saw 3 temples in 15 minutes. It was ridiculous! As we were driving I would go ok there are...7 on this side on the freeway and ....5 over there oh and look, another temple. It was crazy! Utahans- What is your excuse to not go to the temple all the time???

ANYWAYS- so at the reunion is seemed like almost every companion had a baby. There must have been 15-20 babies under the age of 1 at the reunion. Two guys sitting behind us whispered- look at all those kids- it makes me want to throw up!

We went to conference which was AMAZING and saw Music and the Spoken Word live. The only part that I did not like about going to conference were how many people were begging for our tickets on the streets. From the parking garage about 2 blocks away to the conference center we must have been asked for spare tickets about 200 times- Signs, begging, chanting, singing- its ridiculous!

We got back to Adam's Dad's and had dinner and then his stepmom Trina and I went and fed her dad's bum lambs which was easily my 2nd favorite thing on the trip.

Adam and his Dad are SO much alike! Trina and I kept comparing them the entire weekend. The weird part is that Adam's Parents were divorced when he was 6 and he lived with his Mom so I don't know how Adam and Ken are so similar!

On the drive home we had to put chains on passed Reno to be told another mile down the road the freeway was closed and to turn around and find shelter for the night. We got a room in Boomtown at 1:30 AM woke up at 6AM and got back on the road because Adam had class that morning.

Adam's cousin Kimmy passed away a week and a half later in Modesto so the kids and I packed up for another 4 days. She was 30 years old and had Cebral Palsy. She passed away from a severe bladder infection that they had been fighting for almost a year. It was so nice to see Adam's stepdad's family- AKA the Porter Party. The funeral was nice but it made me happy to be a Mormon because there were a few amen-Amen!'s and there might have been a hallelujah in there. The preacher gave a sermon for 45 minutes and then Kimmy's eulogy was only 15 minutes. Anyways, I will miss Kimmy but glad she is home with the Lord. Her mom found an amazing picture of a child with cebral palsy running out of her chair to hug Christ. I tried to find it but couldn't and the picture was amazing!

On to the update about the babies!!

They are 8 months today and Bradley is 17.5 pounds and Kiersten is 12.5 pounds- five pounds difference! He has his two bottom teeth now and she just cut her first tooth Sunday ( lower left)

She doesn't babble too much and he just talks away!! She is starting to crawl and can army scoot across the room to get her toy. Bradley is a very fast roller! You set him down in one spot and 2 seconds later he has rolled across the room and is getting into things he shouldn't be in. Kiersten has started to get this blood curdling screech when she wants something- It drives me crazy! And she looooves her solid food. Every other feed is solids and when I skip a solids feed she refuses her formula and wont eat- very inconvenient for traveling. Bradley likes formula more because its faster. Here are some current pictures:

The babies are actually sharing in the picture. Most of the time Kiersten steals Bradley's things and rolls away with them.

I wanted to see if her sunhat fit her so we could go to the park but it was big and floppy on her. She's sticking out her tongue and I think she is so cute!

Adam was giving Bradley a bath and put his football numbers on his back and then yelled "quick! get the camera!!" He was so proud of this picture I had to post it!

visiting my parents in Maryland!

For the last 3 weeks I have been visiting my parents in Southern Maryland. I'm going home in a week and am really excited to have Adam help me with the night shifts again! I couldn't stay just a week in Maryland because I needed someone to help me on the plane. Legally you can't fly with more than one baby in a row because there are only 4 oxygen masks per row. So my Dad flew out Wednesday and flew back Thursday. My sister Danielle is flying out this week and will go home next Monday and we will travel together.

My dad reserved a "full size" rental car for the day but when he got there they gave him a Nissan Cube. What a joke of a car!! We had to shove two huge suitcases our 3 carry-ons, a twin stroller, the two car seats, and us. It was a serious puzzle!

We got to the airport with less than an hour before our flight took of and when we weighed our suitcases I was over 4 pounds and my dad was over 9. Let me explain why: When my dad comes to California he has to make a bunch of crazy errands and buy stupid things. In my Dad's suitcase he had Berry plants, a 14 pound tri tip, oranges, jalepenos, and Ghirardelli chocolates from the factory in Tracy. He might have had other things too. Anyways, we had to do a crazy shuffle of taking things out and putting in our carry-ons and run through security where they had to handcheck our stroller, then run to our gate where they were already done with pre-boarding. But the nice people in line let us cut to the front so we could get on before them because we had a bunch of stuff!

So once on the plane and everyone had boarded but they hadn't closed the doors yet, no one had sat in my dad's row besides him! I was so excited that I could sit next to him and lay the babies in the middle seat. Every time someone late got on the plane my heart dropped thinking they were going to sit in his row. So when they finally shut the doors I could have shouted!

The babies slept wonderfully on the flight! We actually had to wake Bradley once we had gotten to our gate.

I buckled them into the seat so they wouldn't fall off while we slept too. I love their swaddlers or AKA "baby straight jackets". It makes them sleep so much better!

So once in Maryland there was snow EVERYWHERE! It was so awesome! But the snow has melted and is all gone :( and the last two snows melted as it hit the ground so no sledding down my dad's steep driveway!

Adam has been going crazy without the babies and we try to skype everyday so he can see them. Poor Kiersten tries to jump in the computer everytime she sees Adam. While I have been gone, you might have noticed at church if your in our ward, Adam has grown a beard- he hasn't shaved in almost a full month. I wish I had a picture to post because it just keeps getting funnier as time goes on.

If you read my last blog you know about me trying to feed them solids. I finally gave up because it was so difficult with Bradley and I thought Kiersten didn't know what to do. What they really needed was their grandma Kelly!

Kelly fed Bradley carrots one of the first nights here and he LOVED them! Kelly thought it was hysterical- I kept calling Bradley a faker. We tried Kiersten the next day and she went crazy over it!! She loves it more than Bradley does. Her acid reflux got worse when I gave her carrots but when I switched her to sweet potatoes all her problems went away. When I feed her she reminds me of a baby bird. Every time the spoon comes near she opens her mouth as wide as she can and when I give that spoon to bradley she gets upset. Once while feeding them sitting together she leaned over in front of him trying to steal his food. When I gave him his bottle for him to feed himself she whacked it out of his hands. When I gave it back to him she knocked it out again. When I feed Bradley he tries to grab the each spoonful with both hands making it extremely messy!

She has been loving food so much I have been trying to feed her as much as possible to pack on some much needed pounds!

Another milestone the babies have reached is they are now starting to sit up on their own. They can't do it very long before they topple over and Bradley can do it longer than Kiersten. We've been having them practice sitting when they play with their cousin Kyla who is 10 months.

Five month update

The babies have grown so much within just the last month!

Bradley has been eating cereal and peas now. The first two meals with peas went great- the last couple meals he has thrown fits when we try to feed him. I switched to squash last night after starting the meal first with peas. He of course was mad again so I tried to switch to the squash mid meal to see if he would like that one more but he was so mad he didn't want anything but his bottle.

Kiersten has no clue what to do with solid food. When I give her a taste her eyes get big and she gets a look of panic- its very cute actually.

Bradley now blows raspberries all the time and is so cute! We rarely blew raspberries at them so he must have picked it up on his own. But now that he is started, we blow them back at him whenever he does them.

Last Sunday Adam was holding Kiersten in church and she started to cry during the sacrament. He tried to calm her down and moved his finger up and down on her lips and she was shocked by the noise she made that stopped crying and started laughing- which got everyone in the row to start laughing with her during the middle of the sacrament. The next day every time I held her she would start talking then squawking until I made that noise with her mouth so she sounded like wah wah wah wah wah. Needless to say, My arm got very tired that day! She has fazed out of it a little during the week so I don't have to do it all day long but she still enjoys it. Another thing she enjoys is her crinkle book! I was talking with Savannah Herger in the Mothers lounge one Sunday and she handed Kiersten her daughter's crinkle book. Kiersten was so intrigued by the book that I decided to go by her one. I was at Walmart ( I know I cheated on my love, Target but they don't have everything I need sometimes) and I went to the baby section to get one of the books. I met up with my friend Debby who was doing some returns and she asked what Bradley thought of it. I tried to take Kiersten's book away she started crying so I went back and got another book for Bradley. They were so quiet throughout the store and the only noise they made came from the crinkling of the books. When I checked out I handed the cashier the two books and Kiersten had a melt down! As soon as I handed her book back she calmed down and then fell asleep on the drive home. She can always be entertained by that book! She just loves staring and turning the pages.

The babies meeting Santa

We had our ward party Saturday night were the babies met Santa. My sister called me a dorky mom for taking these pics but they are cute! Our "favorite Aunt" can get over herself :)
Here are the twins very cute Santa outfit pictures. Bradley's hat was too small for him and Kiersten's hat was too big- so I switched their hats- problem solved :)

The Babies blessings

On Sunday the 6th we finally blessed the babies in Church. We were not taking them out in public yet because they were premies and we wanted to wait till they had their first of the RSV vaccines. We also planned it on a time where Adam had a concert so family coming from out of town could hear him perform. It was an amazing performance! The concert ran an hour and a half and was a Christms special that had every ensemble or group from the music department. There wasn't an intermission so it was 90 minutes of fun with maybe 5 secconds inbetween one performace ending and the next begining. This is a picture of Adam with his Dad and stepmom:
So Sunday we had the blessings. Their outfits were made by my Mother-in-Law Donna and we expected Kiersten to be bigger so she was swimming in her tiny dress but the outfits were beautiful. We went to church for the first time with them and then left after Sacrament to have a family lunch for the those that had to leave back to the airport. When two came almost everybody had left by then or shortly after so it made for a crazy weekend with a quiet Sunday night.
This is everyone who came out for the blessings. Again, it was a big group!
And these are the guys who blessed our babies- minus our awesome bishop and Bro Doughman (who we have adopted as family in Chico) They were still at church.
After all the craziness of the lunch, my sister Savannah went to the dumpster to throw something away and found a 5 foot Christmas tree someone had thrown away. It looks like someone got too big of a tree and cut it in half and threw the other part away. The top is an abrupt stop but we put our angel on the top of the stump. Savannah went dumpster diving for me and got it out haha. There is a tree farm not too farm up the hill from us where you can chop your own tree down for $10 so I'm guessing that's what happened.
Anyways, we had a great weekend with My dad and Adam's Dad both flying out a few days early to be there.

3 month pictures

We took he babies to the mall to get their 3 month pictures taken.It was a mess! I have learned my lesson to not get pictures done at Christmas time after 5 in a mall. We waited three hours- I totally expected maybe an hour and a half. But we did get a good price on them! We only had to pay for one sheet with a coupon and the promotions.
Bradley was hungry and fussy and we didn't get too many smiles out of him. This was one of the two smiles.

But Kiersten was laughing and having a great time.