The Girls

Ah...these girls are just so scrumptious! Things just get better and better with them as the days go on. They are going to be a year old in about two weeks. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. When I was pregnant with them, I remember many people who had twins tell me how much they loved having twins. They often told me that they wished they could have a second set of twins. After I had my girls, I thought, 'Why in the world would anyone ever want to have a second set of twins? This is hard!' I'm beginning to see why those people told me they wanted a second set of twins (although I'm pretty sure I won't be wishing for a second set). There is something special about having twins. Well, there's something special about having a baby period, but having two of them at the same time is a different kind of special. Watching them laugh together and learn new things together is an experience I wouldn't trade for anything. Dressing them alike and sitting them side by side in the Costco cart is one of my favorite things to do. We always get people stopping us to talk about my girls. The funny thing about them, though, is that they are so different from each other.

Bailey is a little more reserved. She's definitely a momma's girl. She usually just stares at strangers without cracking a smile. At home, however, she laughs and smiles a lot. She has the most adorable little grin. She loves food and this past week, she finally started crawling! She's been getting up on her hands and knees for months now, but she never actually moved forward. I'm proud of her, even if it did take awhile.



Brynn, however, is not crawling yet. I was worried at first that there was something wrong with her. With all of the things going on these days, like Autism and other abnormalities, I started to convince myself that she wasn't normal. She's not even interested in crawling right now. She can move around the room if she wants to, but she doesn't get up on her knees yet. Even the doctor said that if she wasn't crawling by 12 months, they might have to run some tests on her. I don't think they'll have to, though. She's definitely normal mentally. She's said quite a few words in her baby language, like "mama" "dada" "ba ba" "eyes" "uh oh" "book" "light" "hi." She also tries her best to do hand movements to songs like "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Popcorn Popping." She waves and points to things and claps her hands. From what I've read online, babies with Autism usually focus their attention on one item at a time and they don't really interact much with other people. Brynn interacts a lot with other people. In fact, she's usually really good with strangers and smiles a ton at them. She's actually a really funny little baby. I realize that things like Autism aren't usually diagnosed until a child is around 3 years old, but I'm pretty sure Brynn does not have that. I have no idea why she isn't crawling yet, but I'm trying not to worry about it. I'll let her take her time, if that's what she needs. She may just go straight to walking, and that's okay. I guess I've realized as a parent that there's always something to worry about. You just love your kids so much and you want them to have a happy and normal life.

Learning to Read

Whoops, didn't write yesterday. Mom, I'm pretty sure you're the only one checking my blog these days anyway, so this is for you! I've been really lucky with Hannah because she's always been really eager to learn. I haven't had to push her much yet. Even with potty training, she practically taught herself. And she didn't use pull ups ever at night either. I don't expect to get this lucky with Bailey and Brynn, but I certainly hope I do. I hope this trait continues with Hannah throughout her life, though. Right now, she's been really eager to learn how to read/sound out words. She often asks me how to spell something or she'll try to sound out things by herself. I'm teaching her three letter words right now. Anything more than that might just have to wait. I didn't realize how complicating teaching a child how to read could be. There are so many rules to the English language that I never even thought about before this process. But again, Hannah is trying her best to learn. At this rate, she could be reading like a pro before kindergarten (though I realize it's not a race). Pretty sure I didn't learn how to read until I was like 6 or 7, but I guess things have changed a bit since then. Here's a video of her reading a word.

The Fourth (And Third And Fifth)

Our little fam, dressed up for Independence Day.

My pictures are completely out of order, but I'm too impatient to change it. Our computer is going extremely slow right now because we are downloading something. It took me about 5 minutes just to type this (about to pull out my hair). Ok, whew, just switched computers, so this one's a bit faster. Still not changing the order of my pictures, though. So, let's start with what we did last. On the afternoon of the 5th, we (my step-mom, step-sister, my sisters, and I) threw a surprise 60th birthday party for my dad. We had a wonderful lunch and played a few fun games.

Here are my cute nephews. I can't believe how old they're getting. They're going to be teenagers in just a few short years.

We played water softball where the bases were little pools of water. Hannah loved batting and getting wet on the bases.

The girls wanted to put on a show for us (for the 3rd or 4th time- still cute, though). My two older nieces made up a song and a dance and taught some of it to the younger kids. The song was stuck in my head the entire weekend ("We're gonna fall down, and hit the ground, if you do not come tonight... " repeated over and over).

Hannah and her cousins above

And the birthday boy blowing out his candles!

Earlier that morning we went to the Freedom Festival parade. The girls were so good during the parade. Poor things were exhausted. I don't think any of us got much sleep the night before. Above are Hailey and Bailey.

Hannah took the above picture of me and her friend Jill.

Here are most of the people that we reserved a place for.

Hannah Banana

Brynn and Scott's cousin Andrew above

On the 4th of July evening, Scott and Hannah set up a tent and slept on Scott's cousin's lawn to reserve a good spot for the parade. Hannah was so excited. The above picture is a bit deceiving. I actually stayed inside with Bailey and Brynn while Scott, Hannah, and Scott's cousins slept in the tent. Hannah didn't get to sleep until midnight and Scott said he got about 2-3 hours of sleep that night. A lot of people camp out to reserve a spot for the parade, and they are not quiet. Some of them stay up all night and do fireworks. You know your daughter is tired the next day when she is asking you if she can take a nap.

Scott and Hannah above

Earlier that night Hannah got to do a couple of sparklers with our neighbors.

On Saturday night, the 3rd, Scott and I got to go the Stadium of Fire (an Independence Day show here in Provo at the BYU stadium). My fabulous sister, Hollie, watched our kids for us so we could have a date together. It was a wonderful show, but I didn't get any pictures. Carrie Underwood was the special guest. She has an amazing voice in person! They also had an amazing fire works show. Well worth the money! So that's our weekend in a nutshell.

A Blog A Day

I'm baaack!! It's actually been quite nice taking a break from blogging. Want to see what I was busy doing at night in the month of June? Making these hats...







Not doll hats....hats for adults. It was kind of a service project. This doll hat was the first one I made. The yarn that I had for the adults turned out a bit cuter than this, but I forgot to take pictures of them. I'm going to make some of these for the girls and me for winter! We're going to be the cheesy family with matching hats.

Anywho, I'm done with that project for now, so for the next few days I'll be posting a blog a day. Stay tuned!