A little getaway

Sometimes, we try to look like we've got it all together when we really don't. Sometimes, everything we have bottled in starts to overflow. Sometimes, you have to leave Stake Conference 20 minutes after it starts because you can't stop crying and people are looking at you like you should be committed. When that happens, your husband might look at you and say, "We're going to Logan. Right now." So, you pack up some treats and sippy cups for the babies, grab your camera and drive two hours to the most beautiful valley in Utah. You don't tell anyone you're coming and you don't make plans to see anyone. You decide to let this be strictly a family trip because your family {but most specifically you} needs a trip very badly and even though the trip is only to Logan, it still counts.

 

 

 

And yes, our treats included a can of olives.

 

Sort of a recreation of this picture. I've apparently got a thing for side ponies.

I really do love Cache Valley. I realized on this trip though, that it doesn't feel like home anymore. That was both a heartbreaking and exciting realization for me. I absolutely love where we live and truthfully, it felt like home from the moment we walked into the house once it was ours. However, its nice to know that Logan is just a short drive away and that I have a husband who is willing to take his pathetic wife up there to relive some of my most favorite memories. Pretty much the entire trip was spent reminiscing about our years there. Everything from before we met, to when we were dating, to married life as students before having kids to
bringing home two babies that weren't even 5 lbs.

I owe that little valley a lot and we're determined to make it a part of our girls' lives. 

Because really, 

it is so, so beautiful.

Aaaand don't worry, I'm fine now. Although I was a basket case for a little bit there. Luckily, that's weeks behind us.

Also, I didn't edit any of these pictures because I was lazy. So there you go.

A bucket of water

Sometimes, all a baby needs is a bucket of water to be happy. Luckily, we've got a neighbor with a grass, a bucket and a hose (we'll get grass and a hose someday...). We semi-stripped the babies down and let them have at it. 

They loved it. 

Aaaaaand then the fighting started...

but it was short lived and they continued to happily play.

They giggled and giggled and giggled some more. It was adorable and it made me wonder why I even bother with toys at all. 

All a baby needs is a bucket of water and they're happy as can be.

P.S. We had my friend, Lindsey, take some family pictures recently. Take a peek at them here.
I loooove them. 

How do you do it?

I get this question asked a lot. A lot. Especially when the girls are being particularly...challenging. Sunday was a prime example. They definitely woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. So much so that three different people commented to me how "feisty" my girls were or that my hands were full as I was walking with them in the hall at church. I wasn't offended or anything because they're speaking the truth. They are feisty and I do have my hands full.

Some days, like the past two (or seven) are hard. Some days, all the girls want to do is play outside. Some days I don't get a single thing done around the house. Some days the girls don't want anything to do with me. Some days they won't leave me alone. Some days I think, "Man, this twin thing is pretty easy" and some days I literally cry myself to sleep because I'm so overwhelmed.

My visiting teacher came by yesterday and made note of how my girls were acting at church. When she started out with, "I saw you with your girls yesterday..." I was scared I was going to get a mini lecture. She's a white haired, season mother of ten. She knows her stuff. And I feel like sometimes when people "know" their stuff, they forget what it was really like. They forget all the diaper blow outs (although, if you have white hair, you cloth diapered and I promise cloth diapers don't have blow outs like disposables...) they forget that their children screamed, dumped their milk on the floor, threw your clean laundry all over your house, etc. So, when she said she noticed my girls at church, I was scared. I didn't need to be however, because she recalled when she was a young mother. She said that when her ten children were little, her husband was always either in the Bishopric or Stake Presidency, thus leaving her alone with ten children. She said they would jump off the benches, pull old ladies' hair, pull the trousers off of their brothers, etc, etc. It got to the point where she started talking half of her children to church and left the other half at home with a friend. After the first hour, she'd switch the kids and attend a different congregation with the other half of her kids. She said it was still hectic, but she survived.

I don't know why, but hearing this made me feel like a million bucks. I guess I always assume that I'm in people's way. That my kids are the kids that everyone is annoyed of. That I don't do a good enough job at keeping them quiet or that they are running around too much. Sometimes I feel like church is a waste because some days I literally get nothing out of it.

But then every once and a while, someone will offer to let the one of the girls sit on their lap. Or someone will tell me for the umpteenth time how beautiful their eyes are or how they are the most gorgeous babies they've ever seen. Or someone won't care if they're walking all over their scriptures (although stepping on an iPad is understandable pushing it...) or slobbering all over their pen or playing with their jewelry. Its those moments when I get it. I get that my family isn't the annoying one. I get that my girls do bring other people joy. I start to understand how lucky I am to not only have these girls, but to live where I do surrounded by such great people.

And then I picture myself in 50 years visiting teaching. I'll  recall this stage in my life when I had 13 month old twins who would not sit still or be quiet and how my husband or I would sometimes have to take them home or at the very least spend the hours pacing the halls with them. I'll let the new mom know that it's ok to have babies who refuse to stay in one place for more than 4 seconds. It's ok to have kids that scream when their sister shoves them down. It's ok to wander the halls because at least you're making an effort.

And it's ok to think after all of this, that your babies are the cutest things on the planet because let's face it,

 mine truly are
;)

 

Also, its been almost a week since I've uploaded any pictures from my camera. I was just looking through it and there are some goodies coming your way soon.

Look alikes

No. I'm not talking about Lillian and Sophie. I'm talking about Kelsey and Sophie. My little sister (who recently had a birthday) looks so much like Sophie. I was looking through pictures of Kelsey on facebook and came across this one

I immediately thought that she looked like Sophie. Then, I my friend Julianne commented that Kelsey looked like my girls. I think she specifically looks like Sophie.

     Don't they look a lot alike?

Cabin

*I forgot to schedule this post for tomorrow morning and accidentally posted it tonight. Oh well. Life goes on. Another disclaimer though... I just proof read this thing and there were SO many errors. How embarrassing. I doubt I got all of them, but man! I should have known better not to blog right after doing 2 hours of homework. My brain was apparently fried.

Creative title, right? I think I'm running out of steam with blogging. I don't know if its the fact that school has started and is already kicking my butt (example: my psychology class has two assignments each unit. Wanna guess how long each assignment takes? 3 hours. Plus, I have a paper, a discussion and a quiz each unit. Then I've got my sociology class which isn't quite as bad, but I've still got probably 10 hours of homework each week.) or the fact that I'm super happy where I'm at and I spend a lot of time outside, chatting with neighbors, going on walks, and enjoying this beautiful early fall weather, or maybe its that blogging suddenly freaks me out. I guess in my mind, I didn't think anyone read this. I'm slowly coming to the realization that people do. Not that I'm popular, but I do get a few hundred hits a day and that's made me re-evaluate what I blog and why I blog it. I don't know... I'm just not as motivated to blog as I once was. Hopefully, I get out of this rut soon and keep the posts flowin'.

Anyway, the real point of this post is to talk about our weekend adventure. I didn't take very many pictures (like I think I took 2) but my brother-in-law fell in love a little bit with my camera, so he took a bunch. The cabin was beautiful. Josh's grandpa built it and it had the legitimate cabin feel. It's nestled back in the trees, so it was impossible to get a good picture of it, but it was beautiful. His uncle now takes care of it and he's made the property really great. He's got a couple of giant gardens, a fire pit, a beautiful deck, wood swings, a huge storage shed with enough food to feed a small army, and the outhouse...oh the outhouse... Here are some highlights of the trip.

•  We first went to Jesse and Jared's (Josh's brothers) ward and had lunch after church. These girls were quite the show. One girl drew a picture of Sophie and everyone was shocked that they were twins. I got asked if I was on fertility treatments twice.

• Once we got to the cabin, the babies had no idea where we were and for the first hour or so, they wondered around looking at everything and getting really spooked.  

•  Josh and I went on a little walk and he told me a bunch of memories he had as a kid. I love hearing about "kid Josh". I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have been friends when we were younger (the age difference being a big reason) and I love hearing the experiences that shaped who he is today. I absolutely love it. 

• Josh had the unfortunate task of sifting out two diapers from the outhouse. I knew diapers weren't supposed to go in there (thank you cloth diaper research) but he apparently didn't. Let's just say I shouldn't have watched...

• We roasted marshmallows and it was pitch black. If you know me, you probably know my fear of being murdered. Plus, the scariest movie I've seen (The Strangers) takes place in a freakin' cabin. So, I was a little on edge, but I was doing my best to hide it. So, we're roasting marshmallows and all of the sudden a truck pulls up. It turns off, the door shuts and silence. I was convinced death was walking towards us, which is silly because my husband is 6'5", his brother is 6'8" and his other brother and dad are both just a few inches shorter than Josh. They're a tall family. I don't think many people would want to pick a fight with them. Even so, as I could hear the person walking toward us, I thought to myself, "Ok, there's a shovel right behind me in case he has a knife or sword (yep, I seriously thought that) and there's a giant pile of wood I can jump behind in case he starts shooting." Seriously, I think I have problems.... Good news though! He wasn't a murderer, but just one of Josh's uncle's friends from up the road. We took a peak at his cabin the next day and he...seems a little crazy (well, seeing his cabin confirmed our suspicions of his from the night before) I'm pretty sure this guy is preparing for the end of the world and his cluttered cabin with 5,392 ways to get energy for his cabin would seem to support that theory.

• The girls became obsessed with this stuffed animal reindeer that was sitting in the corner. They definitely had a love/hate relationship with it though and their tiredness didn't help.I got a video of it, but its on my phone and in our room with a sleeping Josh, so that will have to wait for another day, but it truly was hilarious.

• The girls didn't sleep very well. We were afraid of that and we were right. They didn't fall asleep until almost 11, woke up once around 1 am and then woke up again at 2. Josh got up with them and planned to let them play a little while, but it wasn't until 4 that they went back to sleep. Needless to say we were all zonked when we got home. The girls slept for about 5 hours when we got home and I even got in a 2 hour nap. It was wonderful. 

All in all, it was really, really fun. I do think it will be better next summer when the girls are a little older and we'll probably go earlier in the summer so it won't be as cold.  And now that this post is a LOT more wordy than I anticipated... here are some pictures.

Check out a sample of the decor in the cabin. This place is decked out in garage sale gems!

   

Excuse my droned out look. I was running on a couple hours of sleep... :) 

 

I'm sad that I didn't take any pictures outside. Its really, really beautiful up there and I missed out on some what would be great pictures. Oh well. Next year, right?

Outside

These babies love to be outside. Unfortunately, we don't have grass yet (although our retaining wall is being put in as I type this! One step closer to having a real yard...) but fortunately we have a bunch of open community grass right by our house and we've got awesome neighbors who don't mind if the girls frolic on their grass. Sometimes though, I just stick them on our front porch and let them roam around. Here's the latest installment of those pictures...

 

 

 

 

  

They love being outside. 

And I love seeing fluffy cloth diapers under leggings. 

It's a pretty funny sight.  :)

Also, we went to Josh's family cabin over the weekend. It was really fun even though the babies were up most of the night. A post on that is coming soon.

17...again.

Ok, she's not 17 again and I've never actually seen that movie all the way through (although my husband can't claim that....) but its my little sister's birthday today. She is 17 freakin' years old. 

If you've never met Kelsey Herdman, all I can say is that you're missing out. BIG time. She's the greatest. Really, take the top qualities of your five favorite people, add some frizzy hair (love ya, sis!) and you get Kelsey. She is the most caring, easy going, funny, responsible, ambitious, mature 17 year old on the planet. We've been saying this about her since she was 6, but she really is all of those things. 

Sadly, I'm not there for her birthday because we'll be up at the cabin, but thanks to blogger and the ability to schedule posts for the future, I'm able to give her a little birthday shout out. And in case you're really curious, here are her previous birthday posts here and here. Aren't you glad I didn't reminisce about the morning she was born like I have the last two years?

And yes, I stole all these from your facebook page, Kels. 

Happy birthday from you favorite older sister!

Don't tell Brooke. ;)

Well that was a mistake.

I haven't talked about sleep on this thing for a while. Why? Because I've actually been getting some and there wasn't a need to talk about it. When we lived in our last apartment, the girls shared a room. Sometimes, one would wake up, cry a little bit, and it would wake up the other baby. Their cries would build and build and build and BAM! Both babies wide awake. This happened several times. We tried everything to get them to sleep. We stuck them in closets, rocked them, let them scream, fed them, read to them, drove them around... all after midnight. Really, I can't tell you how many times we drove on the freeway after midnight (many times in the snow) just to lull the girls back to sleep. When we got home, we'd carefully take their car seats out, hike up the ridiculously long flight of stairs and stash one baby in the bathroom (no joke) and another in the bedroom, while still buckled in their car seats. That happened probably a dozen times over the course of 5 months. It was horrible.

Then we moved. Our house has 3 bedrooms which is perfect. Each girl gets their own room. If they cry, they won't be 4 feet away from each other. I was convinced that they would finally start sleeping through the night.

Guess what?

They did.

But, I still had a problem. I really like them being in the same room. Sometimes, they do still get up in the middle of the night. When its 3 am and a baby is crying, sometimes I'm not coherent enough to tell which room the cries are coming from. I've gotten it wrong before and woken the sleeping baby up. Fail. Then, there's the whole "stuff" issue. Twin girls come with a lot of stuff. Toys, clothes, bedding, pictures for the walls, curtains, diapers, wipes, a dresser...stuff. We've lived in this house for almost 3 1/2 months (its crazy how time flies...) and I still haven't set up their nursery. In fact, there's still a box of crap I haven't emptied because I don't know what to do with it. Which room should get the curtains? The clothes? The dresser? The diapers? I'm stumped. I guess we could get another set of curtains, another dresser and split up the clothes, but I don't like that idea. These girls share everything. How am I supposed to decide what "belongs" to who and who to stick where? It probably seems stupid, but its actually something I've been thinking about since we moved here and I'm stuck. Hence, the unpacked box and the curtains and picture sitting in the closet.

Anyway, we recently got a pack 'n play for an upcoming trip to Josh's family cabin. I thought I better let the girls get used to the idea of A) sleeping in a pack 'n play (don't worry, they'll each have their own. Those things are tiny!) and B) sleeping in the same room. So, I gave it a try last night. Around 7:15 I got the girls ready, and by 7:45, Lillian was nestled in the pack 'n play and Sophie was in the crib. I went to bed around 10:30 (Josh went to bed pretty much when the girls did) and right after I fell asleep (10:48 to be exact) I heard crying. I didn't think much of it because a lot of times the girls will whine for a minute or two and then go back to sleep. Only this time, it didn't happen. The cry got louder and then more cries started. The cries escalated to two screaming babies. By the time I got in the room, both babies were standing and freaking out. Sophie was wide awake and Lillian was furious.

I went into panic mode because I knew what was happening. The girls were awake and I knew it was going to be hard to get them back to sleep. Now, if you've ever spent the night with these babies (which you haven't unless your name is Josh Mangelson...) you might not know this, but these babies do NOT like to be rocked. They never have. Ok, maybe when they were 3 days old they didn't mind it, but really, as soon as we got them home, rocking didn't absolutely nothing. It woke them up more. And I was never able to nurse them back to sleep either. Well, I guess it did work if they were hungry, but these girls won't eat or drink anything if they're not hungry. So, most of the time that's not really an option. Music doesn't really work, singing doesn't work, and cuddling doesn't work (in fact, that makes them a LOT more mad). The only thing we've found that works is car rides.

However, car rides in convertible car seats don't do jack. Wanna know why? Our babies are the lightest sleepers (they get that from me) and once you unclip the chest belt, they're wide awake. I guess sometimes Lillian will stay asleep and curl up on Josh's shoulder (she hasn't really done it with me yet...) but Sophie's eyes pop wide open and she's ready for play. So car rides are now out of the question because we can't just snap them in and out of the car like you can with an infant seat.

I was thinking of all this in the first few seconds of both of them screaming. I knew I had to separate them, so I picked up Lillian, put her in the other room and shut the door. Still screaming. I went and tried to console Sophie and her mood instantly changed to and oh-you're-coming-to-get-me mood and she started clapping. So I gave her a sippy cup with water, and started tickling her belly. She eventually calmed down (all the while, Lillian is freaking out in the next room) and I got her distracted with a toy. I went into Lillian's room and did the same thing. Luckily, she fell asleep. Sophie however was chattering away in the dark to her stuff animal. I went back in my room and fell asleep to Sophie's gabbing away.

I'm glad they eventually fell asleep, but the whole process took over an hour. (isn't it crazy how quickly time flies when you're up at night with a baby??) It was a lesson learned. The girls are not ready to share a room again. When I was pregnant, I heard from people ALL the time that twins learn to sleep through each others cries. That they like sleeping together. They lull each other back to sleep. Well, I'm calling garbage on that one! Sure, my girls shared a crib until they were 6 months old, but they were also waking up two times a night. I think we we would have had an option of splitting them up, they would have slept through the night a lot sooner. We had moments of success with Chamomile Oil, stopping night time feedings, etc, but nothing permanently worked until we split them up. Why oh why did I think they would magically fall asleep together when the first 9 1/2 months of their lives they didn't?!

Oh well. Lesson learned. Now I just have to figure out the decor for their rooms. I guess maybe I should bite the bullet and get more stuff for the second room? But we don't really need stuff for the second room.

Sigh.

Oh and this morning, when I went to get Sophie, not only had she somehow taken her pants off, but she also had taken her diaper off. Hence, the morning bath and this adorable picture.

Babies. What 'cha gonna do with 'em?

Agri-culture

We went to the Utah State Fair on Monday and it brought back memories of our trip last year. What were we thinking??? Taking 7 lb babies an hour and a half from home and going in a densely populated place with a bunch of farm animals?! Not to mention, that I had to pump in the car and I was only 5 weeks our from my c-section. I laugh about it now, but seriously...that seems so crazy!

This year, I didn't take too many pictures because my camera battery was barely alive, but I did get a few that I thought I'd share. 

Recreating this photo

 

We're finding out more and more that Sophie is not a fan of animals. Most of the time, she's completely freaked out by them. Besides for my mom and sister's dogs, I'm not sure there's an animal out there that she really likes. Parts of the fair were torture for her. Whereas Lillian, wanted to cuddle up with everything that had 4 legs.

 

Look at her face! She was not feeling the goats. Not at all.

This guy (who was incredibly creepy) came up to Josh and said, "You're a big one, sir!" Its definitely not that funny just reading it on this blog, but it was really funny in the moment.  He had this creepy, deep robot voice and the truth is, Josh is a big one. I guess the robot was trying to get the big guys to stick together.

 

I wanted to get a family picture, but it never happened. Oh well. Luckily, we're having our pictures taken by Lindsey Orton next week, so it's not that big of a deal. 

I'm glad I married a guy who appreciates sentimental traditions as much as I do. Going to the fair is definitely something our family is going to do every year!

And just in case you were wondering, the title of this post is from the billboards all around Utah. They have a chicken (or cow or pig) over the "Agri" part of the word and a person with tattoos, body piercings, or rainbow colored hair over the "culture" part of the word. They make me laugh every time I see them, but sadly, my 20 second google search didn't come up with anything, so this stupid explanation is all you get. :)