All American

1 9 yr-old girl + 1 American Girl Place Chicago + 4 hours = 1 VERY happy birthday girl and 1 very broke mama!

Emma's birthday celebration started at 5am. I woke her and told her we were catching a train to town (Chicago). Grandma and Grandpa sent Julie, her American Girl doll, from Idaho. Emma was so happy to see her. I told her we had an appointment at 8:00am at the American Girl Hair Salon to do Julie's hair. She was SO excited!

After the Hair Salon appt, the doors to the American Girl Place opened. WOW...This place was amazing!! Emma begged and begged for a new doll. I told her she could spend her birthday money and some of her money from her bank account on a new doll. This brought tears to her eyes. I asked her if she was okay and she said, "Yes, I'm just so happy!" SO that did it for me...We went a shoppin'.

Emma's new doll, took a trip to the salon for an ear piercing...

And then we shopped some more.... a matching outfit for Emma and the doll and a carrying case for both dolls.

Even the bathroom was fun. What a fun place to spend her birthday! I have a feeling she will remember this day for many years to come!

The party continued at home. Our friends, the Caspers, spent the day with us. Then, after dad got home (about 10:00), we had cake and ice cream. Emma has not stopped playing with her dolls since. Last night I went to check on her and she was asleep with one doll on each side and her bitty baby on her belly. She's my very own American Girl.

TOGETHER AT LAST...

OH BOY ILLINOIS

Willis (was Sears) Tower

Movin' on up

Max is in SEVEN heaven

root root root for the CUBBYS

Max's B-day gift was a trip for the whole fam to the Cubs vs. Cardinals game

Kate and Lyza are now eight months old.

(They hold hands like this now all the time...so cute!)

They are so much fun! I still giggle when I check on them at night and see TWO babies in their crib. We are SO blessed!

HAPPY DAD'S DAY DADIO!!

Happy Fathers Day Dear Dad! We love you much!

Our Magic Number

First of all...proof that ALL of us have survived the past four months.

Here we are at the place where all your dreams come true.

I guess two is our number now days. Our baby Reed is now 2! Crazy how time flies. He is SO much fun...we love to love him! Happy Day Handsome!

TWO CUTE

Here's our sweet baby girls!!

Kate Judy

5lbs 10 oz

18inches

Lyza Grace

5lbs 2oz

17 3/4inches

I have been trying to get this posted for over two months now, but someone always needs to be fed or changed. :) Kate and Lyza (officially named by Emma) were born 11-30-09 at 1:09 and 1:12 am. It was an adventurous night that I would not have changed for anything. I felt some discomfort consistently 4 minutes apart about 3 times. I knew that I was already a 6 and 100% and knew from a VERY fast labor with Max that I shouldn't wait around. So, we called Uncle Dean to sit with the kids until Grandma Kirkham could get here from Blackfoot. As soon as Dean arrived, we were off to Idaho Falls. By the time we were on the freeway, I felt a lot of pressure and started to get very nervous. We put our hazard lights on and went 90 mph all the way to Idaho Falls. At one point we even considered stopping at BMH because I was afraid we wouldn't make it. We arrived in IF to Uncle Glenn (AKA Dr. Leavitt) waiting with a wheelchair outside the Dr. entrance to the hospital. I hopped in the chair and he wheeled me in while Brent parked the car. The nurses game me an IV while Glenn used and US machine to see if both heads were down. They were. I got an intrathecal. Glenn checked and I was dilated to a 10. He said to wait a couple of minutes for the intrathecal to kick in. Three minutes later Lyza was born. Three minutes after that Kate was born. IT WAS AWESOME!!! The girls were taken to the NICU where each one had three nurses working on them, and the Neonatologist was there to check them out as well. Thanks to Glenn we were in good hands! Kate was in the NICU for 5 days, and Lyza had to stay 12 days. That was the hardest part. I hated not having them with me every second, but we are making up for that now!

We are in heaven with these sweet little angels! I am constantly looking at them in disbelieve...there are two of them. Everyone asks if they are identical. We don't know. They look a lot alike and chances are they are. Kate has consistently been about 6 ounces heavier so she looks a little chubbier and is definitely longer. Things are definitely a lot different in our home. It has not been easy, by any means, but we are loving life with our newest additions. Everyone seems to have adjusted rather well. It took Reed longer than the others, of course, but he is sure surviving. The babies are now almost 8lbs. They are smiling and cooing and being all sorts of cute!! It only gets better from here! We have amazing family and friends that have helped us get through these first couple of months. Thanks to all of you for your help!

Happy Birthday Mr. Max

My little Maxer Moo is now SIX! He is such a joy to have in our family. He sure does give us a run for our money. Since we've been here he has lost 4 teeth (we tease that he looks like the homeless guys we see on the street). He has been working for over a year to be able to do the armpit fart and boy has he mastered that one. It is all I can do to keep him from doing it in sacrament meeting. Max's favorite things to say right now are "I'm so popular!" (in the most perfect valley girl voice), "You the man", and "can I watch a movie". He loves wearing hats, jumping waves in the ocean, playing in the dirt, playing with his bakugans, watching tv, PBSkids.org, and picking avocados from the avocado tree. He's having so much fun here in Hawaii with the big boys; especially his cousin Tyler. He says he's "the man". He is all boy and we love him SO MUCH. For his birthday, he chose to go to the zoo. We had a great time. Reed loved seeing all the animals (especially the birds). After dad was done with work, we had cake and ice cream with some of his friends and the boys. He had to have strawberry cake and we decorated it to look like the beach with fish in the ocean and umbrellas on the beach. It sure is hard to see him getting so big, but it's fun to see him learn and grow. Have a great year Max....WE LOVE YOU!!

Catching up

Is it seriously July? CRAZY. I just wanted to catch up with a few fun things we've done this year.

JANUARY

We went to visit Uncle Erin's family. It was more fun than we could have imagined. The kids had a great time. In fact, the other day (before we found out about the twins) I was telling the kids to think about a fun place they wanted to visit in the fall. (I was thinking Disneyland, New York, etc... ) Max immediately said he wanted to go see uncle Erin again, and Emma quickly agreed.

Uncle Erin took great care of Emma and filled a couple teeth. Definatly the BEST dental experience she has had! Thanks Uncle Erin!

Leann brought her cotton candy maker over and the kids had a blast!



Emily, Leann, and Ashley let Emma do their makeup and hair
(Emma was in heaven)


We watched Jacob wrestle, and when he came home he showed Max a few moves.

FEBRUARY

Since we are always gone in the summer for Emma's birthday, and she hasn't had a party with her friends for years, told her we could have a Valentines tea party for her friends. She had lots of fun planning the menu, games and decorations. Max dressed up and was the butler and greeted everyone at the door. We served heart-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches, fruit snacks, baby carrots with ranch, grapes, and, of course, pink punch. We served everything on crystal. After tea, we played games. Emma had a good time hosting.


MARCH

For Spring Break, we went to Salt Lake City with Dan, Johanna and family. We went to the children's museum and temple square. We also had a cousin camp and had Grant and Isabelle spend the night. While they were there, Emma decided she wanted her ears pierced and Isabelle, Koy, and Cameron came to support her. Emma also decided she wanted a hair cut. She had 7 inches cut! She is such a big girl now.

APRIL

Baby Reed turned ONE. I can't believe how time flies. Reed has been such a blessing to us. I love to watch him sleep and kiss his sweet cheeks. He loves to follow the cat around, say "mow", and try to lay on her (his way of showing her he loves her). He learned how to say stop "dop", don't, and no. Isn't it lovely to have older siblings? He loves his big brother and sister. He cant wait for them to come home from school. For his birthday we had a few family and friends over for cake and ice cream. He loves the Baby Einstein DVD Aunt Kris and Grandma Elouise gave him when he was born so we made a caterpillar cake for him. It was super cute. I used suckers for the lets and antennas. We gave him the head. He grabbed a sucker for each hand and didn't even care to try the cake. ISN'T HE CUTE!!!!

Brent left to work in Hawaii on his birthday, April 14th. We all missed him very much. A couple weeks after he left we found out about the babies. We couldn't stop grinning. I was pretty sick and it wasn't easy to be on my own for 2 months, but it was so amazing how many people were there to help us. We didn't tell people about the babies until right before we left for Hawaii (mid June), but we had SO many blessings. I have a true testimony that God watches over us and takes care of us through the hands of others.

MAY

(yes we took turns pushing the babies in the stroller)

We were busy with end of the year EVERYTHING. I also did a 5k with Johanna. My knee gave me problems so I probably skipped more than I ran. It was fun to do, but the pain in my knee afterward was horrible. I went to the ortho surgeon who did surgery on my knee after my accident and he gave me some exercises to do in hopes that it will improve. Funny that my knee rarely hurts when I run on a treadmill, do spinning classes, or aerobics. It is just when I run outside that it gets me. The kids also ran in a small race. It was really hard for both of them, but they both say they want to do it again.

Fhew... thanks for bearing with me through that.