Easter Early!

Since  General Conference falls on Easter Sunday this year and we will be watching Church in pjs, the girls were able to wear their Easter dresses a week early!

The first time ever the girls have worn 100% matching outfits (and they even match Emma too!)

What is wrong with me?!  Well, this was a one time thing, but I think they look cute.  Even if Addison is crying! 

I'm a Sheep!

And follow right along with the coupon trend.  Although it can't really be considered a trend if it is practical, right?  Here is my cute "little" binder...

With the table of contents and everything.  That is actually super helpful.

Here are my coupons stored in collectible card holders, which also works well (all of this courtesy of the Krazy Coupon Lady via Melanie and Arianna)

So far I have saved almost a 100 dollars in doing this for the last two weeks.  Not bad, right? Today, I braved it to see how it would work with kids and took them with me to Toys R Us and Walgreens.  Total cost for the five board games: $15 *** correction.  The total for the games is $7.  Even better! (but it is minus the trouble game as I bought the wrong one for rebate and will be taking it back today (and getting my free My little ponies!)
Total cost for the Walgreens stuff: $6 (the candy included in this total was already consumed by the three little munchkins who were very well behaved). That was  8 items  averaged at .75 each.  Better than the dollar store! Now, this is beginner savings in my opinion as I have seen the piles of items for a total of .30 or something crazy like that, but I am getting there!

These board games will go in the closet for presents.  Having two school age kids, they get invited to a lot of birthday parties.  Now, I have gits already in the closet.  I would normally spend about $10 on a birthday gift, and these only cost roughly$1.75/each, so that works for me! (sorry to any parents of kids my children attend birthday parties for as the "surprise" is now ruined!)

Cute and Nutty

After her bath,  classic Addison face

Kate, flamboyant as always

My two peas is a pod

Addison thinks she is quite the daredevil. 

I think that she and Nathan would be dangerous together.

 I am sure at least one person is thinking "Why don't you have straps on your high chairs?!"  Well, the answer is, I did.  But have you ever been in the middle of cleaning two high chairs and trying to get everything off and then back together again? Sometimes a person might get a bit frustrated at said chairs and then decide that the best course of action is to cut off the straps, pull them out and toss them in the trash.  So, now my punishment is I can never be too far from Addison when she is almost done eating.  I have to know how long I have, and usually it isn't too long unless I put an entire can of peaches on her tray. 

Rainbow Cupcakes

Sometimes I wish I could be in the kid's classes a little more. I guess to make up for it, I thought I should make them some sunny treats for school just because. I had found this recipe on St. Patrick's Day and then also saw them made at the Relief Society birthday party we had. Once I saw the recipe really worked, I was excited to make them for the kids. I couldn't make them for just one class, which worked out to be a minimum of 70 cupcakes. Let's just say that the cupcakes didn't all match as after multiple batches, you get a bit tired:)

Here is the final product:

They look a little tie die, until you bite into it and then see the lines of the rainbow (in order, thank goodness I still remember). I sent two cans of spray whipped cream in and they were able to top them at school. I think this would be a fun St. Patrick's day tradition for the kid's classrooms, but need to rethink that when at one point that will equate to almost 150 cupcakes.

A Scanner On My Heart

This is a post just for me to remember, and will not include any details.  I need to keep the trust of my little boy:)  So, sorry, I just wanted that phrase to go down in the blog book.  Alright, Melanie, leave your comment....

School Pictures

When your brother just happens to be the one taking pictures at your kid's school, you get a preview before anyone else:) 

Emma, Kindergarten

Bailey, 3rd grade

(and on a side note, he now weights 74 pounds!)

We are on fire

Let's say one of your twins runs the walker into your very tall lamp, it crashes to the ground and breaks everywhere.  It is not a good idea to leave the mess there while you make lunch quickly for screaming babies if you have a 3 year old running around.  He will plug it into the wall and you will have a nice little fire on your hands.  Just some words of wisdom:)

and we are all fine, no damage (except the lamp of course)...

We need two of everything!

Kate and Addison have discovered some of Nathan's old toys.  The problem is they both want to do things at the same time...Funny how that works with twins.

Addison on the giant puppy, Kate with the walker.  We kept them pretty happy trading off, but sometimes...

You just can't make everyone happy at the same time.

Kate was the only twin to share with Emma

Addison riding the puppy

Kate teasing us, pretending she knows how to walk

Addison knew what was coming...Kate's turn for the puppy

Her side pose.

We really do have fun days

Despite the poop/puke incident this last week, we did have a lovely time whenever the sun poked through.  I would open up the windows, let Nathan play outside while I usually folded laundry or something exciting like that. 

I took this picture through the window.  He loves being outside, and doing anything really.  Even if it is just wandering around with sticks.

He also loves to rake the lawn!

Kate having fun indoors with a paper bag.  Yup, we go all out on toys in this house.

Sometimes, they even get the luxurious....plastic cups to play with!

Chub overload

Sweet Addy

She does this all day long, but won't move her feet to go forward.

They love pictures.

I forgot to post this one before.  Addison didn't quite sit down right when she got in trouble for standing up in her high chair.  So I punished her with a picture.

Here are the other pictures I forgot to post as well:

Kate's breathing treatments.  She had a bad cold that didn't turn out well.

We tried a new hairstyle on Nathan.  You can't see it too well in this picture, but it was kind of a fluffy look:)

Bailey's Calendar

Bailey has kept a calendar in his room for at least the last year, if not longer.  He not only has to write things that are happening, but he will go back and write things that did happen that were important to him.  It's all part of his meticulous personality!  Since I probably won't keep the calendars for his "baby book" (which doesn't exist anyway), here is a sample from this month's events.

  He MUST cross off every day, no matter what.  Since the clarity isn't the best with the pen he chose to write in, here's what it says:
March 1: Glasses 3:00 p.m. (He was so excited to get his glasses that day!)
March 2: Hot cocoa, Scouts (the older grades sell hot chocolate every Tuesday and he has spent all of his change on it)
March 4: Sick
March 5: The Day back at school (after being sick:) )
March 7: Chase came over (our Bishop's son came over to watch the kids while I was gone and Ben had meetings).
March 9: Fire Station, I got hot Coco (On this day, he actually got to buy hot chocolate, whereas last week it was only available)

He's a few days behind on his event list, but rest assured, he will go over it at the end of the month and fill anything in that he missed before turning the page.  Maybe I should have him start doing my scheduling as well....

Poop Crimes

THE CULPRITS:

Kate and Addison Oram


THE CRIME:

Pooping without a diaper, sharing and smearing said poop

THE CRIME SCENE:

I understand that I have learned my lesson with Addison about not letting her sleep without something covering her diaper.  However, this blanket is pink and yellow.  To redeem myself, Kate was only sleeping in a diaper because she had thrown up all over herself in the car and passed out in her crib before I could put clothes on her.

Thrown in shower jail.

I thought that luckily Addison was not affected by Kate's poop spree.

I was wrong...

Because when I went back to check on the damage after tossing Kate in the shower, this is what I found under Addison's blanket.  How it got through the bars in one big clump??!  I don't know.  

But this is what I found all over Addison's crib as I started cleaning.  So, I guess they thought it was something to play with and Kate was sharing? 

Good thing I had finished washing the covered in puke car seat so that the covered in poop blankets could go in the wash....

Happy Wednesday!

Seriously....

Are we in for it?

Emma's 6 year old picture (a few months late)

When did I give birth to the cover of a magazine?  OK, so I am biased, but I do love this picture...

Addison at 15months

Kate at 15 months

They will finally wear the headbands again, yay!

I just thought this was funny-fighting over blocks.

It was a girls only trip to Picture People, and we had fun!  Even though it took FOREVER, but that was expected. The boys stayed home and did yard work (and probably played the Wii)

Bath time

The girls now love to take a bath.  For a while, it wasn't their favorite thing to do (probably because it was always, get in in, get soaped, get out, quickly, mommy has other kids to bathe!) Now, they would spend forever in there if you let them.  Their favorite is when Bailey takes a bath with them. 

Addison kept giving him hugs.

Excuse the behind shot, but this is classic Kate.  

Princesses Everywhere

While cleaning her room last night, Emma decided that Kate and Addison needed princess crowns while they watched her clean.

I was able to get Kate to put hers back on for the pictures, but she didn't keep it on for long.

Addison, on the other hand, had us put it on her again after her bath.  Then, when we tried to take it off for her to go to bed she cried.  I'm thinking I might be able to start putting head bands on her again since she had no problem keeping this on.  Or maybe she can just wear a princess crown everywhere:)  A sister after Emma's own heart.

Glasses for Bailey

He loves them, can you tell?  

Bailey has perfect vision, but these are prism lenses.  His eyes cannot focus on something in front of him and want to turn outward.  The muscle in his eye is not strong enough to hold the focus.  So what has been happening is that (in order to not see double since his eyes won't work together), one eye has been shutting off.  This explains how tired he gets when working hard at school or at home on homework.  Imagine only being able to see with one eye and concentrate on new things.  These glasses help bring his eyes into focus at the same time.  He will need them for the rest of his life, and they don't make contacts that will accomplish the same purpose.  

But, Bailey is in love with having glasses.  Well, for now:)  He told me today that he felt like a movie star when his teachers were admiring them.  He also told me that one of the kids at school told him glasses were dumb.  He took it pretty well since he didn't believe the kid.  :)  That's my Bailey....

The doctor will check in 30 days to see if it is working or not, and hopefully school work will get easier for him as well.  Considering he has been doing so well despite the visual issues, we are excited to see what will happen with the glasses.  I'm still not grasping the fact that he will be in 4th grade by this August.  4th grade doesn't seem that long ago for me, let alone having a kid that age. 

It's Late...

Of course I had to stay up late to watch the Bachelor, but had to wait until it was almost over so I could fast forward through most of it.  The show itself annoys me, but I still watch (well, sort of thanks to TIVO).  I have really been wanting to document a few things anyway, so here goes my late night posting...

Bailey told me today that music can help you learn new things.  How, I asked?  Because if you are going to play in Texas, you've got to have a fiddle in the band, he said. 

Emma's idea of romance: Cinderella is not as "romantic" as Sleeping Beauty and Enchanted because no one tries to poison or kill her.  Romance=near death experience...Ok, got it, Emma.

Nathan's adventures while I am in the shower:

Phone rings, so he pushes a chair over to reach it.  By the time he gets up there, it stops.  He looks down and sees a jar of money.  What should you do with that?  Stuff all the change in your pockets, of course! As you do that you notice a plate of leftover chocolate cupcakes...Well, you have to eat one on the couch, right?  But when you accidentally eat the wrapper, it is best to just spit it out on the rug. 


No pictures of our overnight trip to Napa last Friday.  But this is what our room looked like.

And this is what we ate:

Well, what Ben ate- Flash fried Calamari.  I had some really, really good chicken.  And we shared the gooey chocolate cake with gelatto. They brought it out with a sparkly candle we got to blow out in celebration of our belated 10 year anniversary. 

Our table looked like this...minus the wine glasses.  We got a funny look when we said no thanks to wine, we don't drink.  Who goes to Napa and doesn't drink?  Us, that's who:)  The place is called Celadon, and it was yummy.  Their oil and vinegar to dip the bread in was SO GOOD!

We braved a timeshare presentation for a $100 gift card to Macy's.  So worth it as they had a big sale that day and we bought Ben some new work clothes.  We are really good at timeshare presentations, and have scored lots of good stuff from them.  Usually we make up our income and Ben's job, but this time, we were so close to not completely lying.  We just fast forwarded a few years.  I almost laughed out loud when the salesman referenced a legal term and Ben said "oh, no you're taking me back in time to law school...."  Silly salesman, you were played for a $100 Macy's gift card.  Even the "closer" and the "closer's closer" couldn't get us.  I'm afraid one day we'll be put on a timeshare black ball list.


Today, Ben came home after work and we all had dinner together.  He had no books looming, or classes he needed to be at. We ate on our nice plates (the ones that all match!), had hot chocolate with dinner and ate with the candles at the table, just the 7 of us.  I could get used to this:)