Wordless(ish) Wednesday.

Some recent pictures that I quite enjoy.

 

Hung out with these gals last night. There were lots and lots of laughs

And some recent things that I quite enjoy

Sophie and Lillian's love for Singin' in the Rain. They especially love this scene.

The fact that Josh is done with the night shift for the week. 

Wearing socks. I love socks and have a pretty good amount of knee high colorful socks that I'm always so anxious to wear. There are few things better in life than a great pair of socks. 

Hot chocolate. I've had a lot of hot chocolate this month. Complete with creamer, peppermint pillow mints, and marshmallows. Creamy, chocolately and pepperminty. It's awesome. 

The stage the girls are in. I love it. They are the best. 

And with that, wanna send a vote their way? They'd really appreciate it. 

"Jengy and Bett"

You know how I always mention my "neighbor" in my posts? My neighbor who I've called at all hours of the day (literally after midnight a time or two). My neighbor who has gotten my girls to sleep while I've cried in the hall. My neighbor(s) who met me at instacare (and stayed with me for hours) when I thought Sophie swallowed some pills. My neighbor who the girls love more than practically anyone else. My neighbor who I've spent hours of every day for the last year with. My neighbor who has taught me how to cook, how to sew, who exercises with me every morning, who gives me advice, who understands me, who is hilarious, who will sit and eat milkshakes and veg with me. 

This neighbor's name is Jenny, her husband's name is Brett and their house is literally less than 20 feet away from ours. I wouldn't have it any other way. Brett and Jenny are hoping to adopt and I can honestly say I don't think I've ever been more excited for someone to become parents. Jenny runs a preschool and is so good with kids. She parents my girls better than I do most days and they love her like she's their mom. She's usually the last person they talk about at night and the first person they mention in the morning.

And Brett? Next to Josh,  Brett is the #2 man in the girls' lives. Brett is the Bishop of our ward and the girls love to wave at (and sometimes sit with) him when he's on the stand at church. They love stopping by his office after church (along with dozens of other kids) and getting candy from him. They love when we happen to be outside when he comes home from work and he always stops to play with them for a few minutes before going inside.  The girls love to garden with Jenny and Brett. They follow them around when they mow the lawn, or are picking weeds, or are working on their pergola on the side of their house. They adore them.

Remember those adorable dresses the girls wore for the 4th? 
Handmade by Jenny.

At our ward campout, Brett and Jenny pitched their tent right next to ours. The girls still talk about "camping with Jenny and Brett". On that trip, Lillian's love of throwing rocks in the water was born, thanks to Brett. :)

One of those times where they stopped to play with the girls before going inside. 

My girls love them. And frankly, will be quite jealous at first when a baby joins their family, but I know that Brett and Jenny's kids will be like siblings to mine. I've told Jenny that there really isn't an option for them not to be.

They love them. We love them. And it's not just us who loves them. Everyone in our neighborhood loves them. I would trust them with anything and feel so grateful that a next door neighbor has become a best friend. 

So, do me a favor and check out their profile and blog. If you really love me, then you'll grab their button (which was made by yours truly) and stick it on your blog.

Jenny and Brett have taught me a lot about being a parent and I know any child that comes into their home is going to be incredibly lucky. I love them and I can't wait for their kids to be friends with mine.

Scenes from the weekend

It was a really good weekend. One of the best I've had.

Don't worry, Mindy, a full post about Lacy's wedding is coming soon...

This guy

Is my favorite.

A cure to a bad weekend.

We had a bad weekend. In some ways it was good because something that I've been stressing over for months finally got resolved. It didn't however, get resolved exactly how I wanted it to be, and I spent a great deal of time feeling cheated and sorry for myself. What this weekend did do, was present itself with the perfect excuse for Josh and I to get away on Monday night. We left the girls overnight for the first time in their lives. I'm incredibly grateful I have a neighbor and little sister that helped make it possible. A quick overnight trip was exactly what the doctor ordered. 

We didn't go too far, just to Park City. If you've spent time in Utah and have been to Park City, you know that even though it's just a few minutes away, it's a world away from your stereotypical Utah/Salt Lake County. It was the perfect break and honestly? I didn't miss the girls nearly as much as I thought I would. I mean, I missed them, but I knew they were in good hands and I knew I needed the break. And boy did it feel good to take that break. 

Our night started with dinner at Ruby Tuesday, followed by walking up and down Park City's Mainstreet, spending waaaaaay too much money at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, a swim in our hotel's pool/hot tub and finally, a semi restful sleep. I say semi restful because we only had a queen size bed. We don't do well in queen size beds. I don't understand how any couple does well in queen size beds, but we especially do not. Josh is 6'5 and we both move a lot in our sleep. Arms go a flyin' and faces get smacked when we're in a queen. We managed to sleep though and I got to sleep in and wake up on my own time. I was so excited about not having to change diapers and get sippy cups that I spent over an hour in bed whilst watching HGTV and The Price Is Right. I felt like a royalty. It was probably my favorite part of the trip.

We then ate breakfast, got ready and headed to the outlets. I wanted to focus on getting things for Josh, because his birthday is this coming Sunday, but nope. He spoiled me instead. I spent the most money I ever have before on jeans and got a hoodie and yoga pants. Retail therapy is real, my friends. It's a beautiful thing. 

I didn't take too many pictures, but here are a few of the ones I did. 

The resident cat in the bookstore...

It wasn't until we were in the car ready to come home that I realized we never got a picture of the two of us. So this is it. An unflattering picture of us. :)

It really was the perfect little trip and I'm not sure what I did to deserve being spoiled like I was, but I was really, really grateful for it.

I did it.

I can't tell you how good I feel right now. I finally did something for me. What is that, you ask? I dropped out of my classes for this coming semester. I sent in my "leave of absence" form. I am taking a break from school for the first time in almost twenty years. A part of me (a small part, I may add) thinks I should have just plowed through, but guess what? My life is pretty stressful right now. There are things going on that take a lot of my time, energy and emotion. They are more important than quickly finishing my college degree. And I know that's it's quick to think, "well life won't get any easier, Brittany." but guess what? It actually probably will get easier. The stresses in my life have little, if nothing to do with the girls. They're personal and I need to work through them. 

So that was probably more detail (even though I was incredibly vague) and more justification than I needed to give, but I feel like a million bucks. I'm putting the most important things first and not putting what everyone else thinks is important first.  I'll actually have time to study for and prepare to test into statistics. I'll give my mind the time it needs to not be burned out anymore. And don't worry, I already committed to going back in January. I just need one semester. One semester of an extended summer 'vacation' to clear my head, prioritize, and better my relationship with the people that mean the most to me. 

So here's to admitting that you're in over your head and doing something about it. Here's to taking a break and here's to my Bachelor's degree, 6 years (and counting) in the making.

Oh and I had to share this funny... I got an email from USU confirming that they got my forms and it was signed by the registar's office with the post script of

GO AGGIES!  (But then come back!) 

I love USU. 

Picture taken Fall of '09 on my super crappy phone. 

I don't care what anyone else says, Cache Valley (and USU's campus) in the fall is the prettiest  place on the planet.

Year one

A year ago today, we signed the closing papers on our house. I think it's funny how different my life was on that day.

 The babies looked like this 

 

and now they look like this 

(and it's increasingly harder to get a decent picture of them together) 

Josh was still going to work at 3 in the morning. I had no idea that my new best friends were living 50 feet away from us. I had no idea how quickly I would fall in love with our home. It's perfect for us. The area is perfect for us. And I can't wait for the many, many years to come. 

And what's a more perfect way to celebrate a year in your house than putting in sod? It's a little embarrassing that it took us a year to get it in (we were supposed to have it in 3 months after we moved in. Oops...) But it was delivered this morning and in before we know it.

 

It's been a good year. I am so, so happy that we signed those papers a year ago. 

Today

Today was hard. It was one of those days where for a brief, selfish moment, I wished I didn't have twins. The girls were all over the place. Josh got home at 6:30 this morning and both girls were screaming. I was zonked out in bed, so who knows how long they had been up. I have never slept through their morning cries. At the first peep of a baby making noise, I pop out of bed. Not today though, I was beat. 

So I grabbed the girls, took them downstairs and tried to calm them down so Josh could go to bed. They were awful. SO riled up and none of my usual tricks were doing anything. It took almost a half hour of us (and I say 'us' because Josh stayed up to help) to get them settled down. From then, Josh went up to bed and I was left with the terrors. Over the next few hours, they knocked over a bookshelf, broke a bowl, tipped over their highchairs and Lillian was banging Sophie with one of the legs. They almost pulled down our blinds, opened a container of wipes and pulled about half of them out, grabbed poo out of diaper that should have been thrown away and so on and so on.. 

It sucked. They kicked my trash. And all while Josh was trying to sleep. I tried taking them outside, but my allergies only allowed that for about 15 minutes. I tried coloring, stickers. their favorite movies, letting them play with Tupperware that they never get to play with, etc, but they were just too much for me. By noon I decided it was time for an early nap for everyone. I gave the girls some milk, a few treats and stuck them in their cribs with a books and toys. I laid down and miraculously slept until 2! It was amazing! The rest of our afternoon was a bit better, but the girls were still giving me a run for my money. 

Anyway, I didn't intend to write that all out. I was going to stick with a "the girls were hard today" and leave it at that. Oops. Guess I needed to vent... but the real reason for this post is what I learned tonight. 

These babies have zero ability to hold a grudge. I lost my temper with them a few times today and was more harsh than I should have been. I didn't do anything over the top, but I was not patient at all. And the girls were mean to each other. Hitting, stealing toys, knocking each other over, etc. You'd think that at the end of the day, they'd be a little less inclined to run up and give me kisses. A little less likely to hold their sister's hand. Nope. That didn't happen at all. When I told them, "girls! It's time to go to sleep! Grab your blankets!" Sophie ran to grab Lillian's first. She gave her sister her blanket before she got her own. And then, they folded their arms while I was saying our prayer without being asked. And after that, they jumped up and gave each other a hug. Then they came over to me and did the same. Lillian found a binky for Sophie and tickled her toes and I laid her down in her crib. Then she waved and said, "bye!" as she shut Sophie's door. Lillian then grabbed her Elmo, threw him in her crib and patiently waited for me to stick her in. I did and as she started sucking on her blanket her cute little hand started waving. 

I love them. They are so good. They are forgiving. They are so kind. They are becoming best friends who are concerned about each other and wanting to be "ni" (nice) to their sister. They've taught me so much and it's amazing how horrible my attitude was this morning. They were pretty rotten, but they definitely made up for it. 

I'm so lucky to have them and I need to stop forgetting that. 

2011

A lot has happened this year. And although I know I should say that 2010 was my favorite year, because that's the year we had the girls, 2010 was incredibly hard. 2011 brought a few hard things, but for the most part, we've been able to sit back and realize how blessed we've been. The girls have developed the most individual and equally hysterical personalities, we've changed jobs, changed housing, made new friends, and have loved watching these girls grow and become little people. So here's to 2011. Quite possibly my favorite year of my life so far. 

January

This was the first month that the girls really started to interact with each other. They smiled, giggled and reached out to their sister. They also...tried to eat each other. 

 

February 

February is when our lives started to get a little better. Josh got a new job. A real job with a wage that would allow us to not skimp and scrape every month just to pay the bills. We finally were in a position where paying rent wasn't a huge burden and Josh started to feel like his education was paying off. We had planned to stay in our apartment for a few more years, save up, and eventually buy a house. Little did we know that this was the month that the perfect house for us was starting to be built and in just a few more months, we'd be moving. 

And in other news, Sophie learned how to pick her nose. 

March

While Josh was adjusting to waking up at 2am for work, Sophie learned to roll over in her swaddle. Because of this, we started the semi-painful process of putting the girls down unswaddled. At the end of the month, I turned 23.

 

 We also had our family pictures taken by Sharon and they turned out beautiful. 

April 

I caught Lillian's growl on video. Click here to watch it. She still does it and it's still hilarious. April also was the month that we first saw our house. We really weren't planning on buying so soon, but we just wanted to see what our options were. I fell in love with it immediately and we both felt really good about it. When we started looking at interest rates and loan options, it made absolute sense to buy. I've now come to realize that this decision was one of the best decisions we've made. We absolutely love it here. 

 

We also took the girls swinging for the first time. In my opinion, every set of twins needs a good bucket seat picture. 

May 

Our house kept getting more and more finished every time we went to look at it. It didn't seem real that it would be ours in just a month and that I would have my own beautiful kitchen that I would learn to cook in. 

And in baby news, they started to get a lot more mobile. It made my job a little more tricky, but I learned how to coop them up by using our collection of pillows. 

 June

We used our apartment's pool a grand total of one time because June wasn't as warm as we would have hoped.

The girls still only had two teeth and they turned 10 months old. 

 

June also brought our most exciting adventure: 

Home ownership!

It took a couple of days to get everything into the house, but on June 22nd we brought the cribs and our bed over to officially move in. 

July

July brought us lots and lots of unpacking (which we still haven't finished 6 months later) meeting new neighbors, becoming familiar with our new area and the 4th of July. The girls started finally sleeping through the night because they were in separate rooms. No more 2 am drives around Salt Lake! Well, I think it's happened 3 times since we've moved, but that's a lot better than 3 times every week...

August

Josh turned 29 and the babies turned 1. A whole year. That was the fastest year of my life. The first 4 months or so are a complete blur. I literally only have a handful of memories from when we lived in Logan and the girls were newborns. It makes me sad, but I was literally getting 3 hours of sleep a day. Life was crazy and I never thought we'd make it to the year mark. We did. And it was wonderful. 

We also played outside a lot. The girls demanded to play on the porch or in our neighbor's yard every day. I loved soaking up the sun and got a pretty decent farmer's tan. 

September

The sun continued to shine down on us in September and I was more than OK with that. The girls continued to play outside and we made a make-shift pool using a bucket, a hose and our neighbor's yard.   

We got another round of family pictures taken. This time by Lindsey.

We also took a trip to Josh's family cabin. The girls liked it, but it was the first time back in the same room for them, so the sleep arrangements were rather rough. I want to go back next summer and am hoping we'll get more than 5 hours of sleep. 

October

We went to the Pumpkin Walk 

And the girls were Thing 1 and Thing 2 for Halloween

November

November brought colder weather, but we still made a trip to the zoo. 

We also jump started the Holiday season with a trip to Temple Square

 

December

December was filled with finals week, Christmas shopping, cold snowless days a trip to Vegas, our 3rd wedding anniversary and a wonderful Christmas weekend.

So there you have it. That was our year. And that was the longest post I think I've ever done. I'm not quite sure when I'll be blogging again because we're getting a new internet provider and the transition between the two is going to leave us a few days without a connection. Plus, I'm kind of blogged out. 2012 will bring on a new phase for this blog. I will be blogging less, but I'll still be around, just not every other day like I have been. Between toddler twins, school and trying to upkeep this house, blogging might get put on the back burner a little bit more. 

But that's all besides the point. 2011 may have been my favorite year. It was wonderful and I'm glad I've blogged so much through it and can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us!