The Latest Fashion

These kids are growing like weeds. We realized this week that we are one month away from having a 4-year-old and two 1-year-olds. Really? When did that happen?

Hi Emma!

Paige is working really hard on learning to read and write. I'm super impressed. She can write our whole family, plus a couple more words then asks how to write 'Grandma', but then says it's too long. We write little messages to each other on the board every day.

With all the growing going around, their clothes seem to be disappearing every day. Last count, Paige only had no skirts, and the babies only had two dresses. So we did some quick sewing, just in time for Easter.

Boo's standing up all by herself! It's kind of a big deal.

Tea parties are pretty common around here, and Grandma Cooper sent us some fun hats, so we tried to have a tea party in all our fancy new duds. We got a couple blurry shots before it degenerated into a hat-wresting competition.

Fun Fact: Easter hats look like sombreros if your angle is too low

Farmer Anna and her trusty rhino

Paige was really frustrated that no one was doing things properly. Sometimes being the oldest is hard.

On Saturday we went to a local Easter egg hunt, and Sunday Paige wore her new dress from Grandma Tucker. Paige refuses to keep clips in her hair.

And just in case you still need more cute pictures of these crazy kids:

One-Liners

Stop sucking on your sister's head! 

Sometimes I look over, and all I see is a little baby zombie apocalypse.

Maybe we should have nicknamed Emma 'Speedbump' instead. Sorry, Speedbump.

 At least they're crying in harmony. That's good.

"Helping" with the laundry

 If you two keep this up, I'm dressing you as shrieking eels for Halloween.


I just found a diaper under my pillow, and I have no idea how long it's been there.

I only found 7 diapers scattered around the floor, so not too bad, I guess.

Boo loves beans!

Stop banging on the table and growling at each other. This is dinner, not a shots competition!

Sneezing with a mouth full of food is bad news for both of us, baby.

Anna supports this message. And beans.

LaLa is going to Costco, because she has a membership card. She goes to Costco every day to eat cupcakes! 





Mommy, I had the best dream! You, Daddy, Anna, and Emma were sleeping all night!

I really miss the repair man. He's my friend, and so handsome. 

While My Machine Gently Spins

Our washing machine broke last Friday; no spin cycle whatsoever, just sopping wet clothes. After an hour or so of taking apart the machine, putting it back together, and being peppered by Paige's questions, the repair man still couldn't get it to work. He said he'd do some research and be back, but they might have to replace it. Paige was elated that the repair man was coming back to play. Anna was sad no one was turning the machine on for her to watch. I was frustrated that I had several more days with growing piles of stinky laundry piles, and no clean clothes. Emma was happy that she didn't have to wear pants. I haven't asked ask how Jeff felt.

After trying this and trying that, they brought in a new machine today! Paige is sad the repair man is not coming back. Anna is sad the machine is a top-loader and she can't see anything. I've happily washed three loads of laundry already. Emma's still not wearing pants. Still not sure about Jeff.

Anyway, how about some pictures of us not doing laundry, eh?

We finally got a babygate. Striped jammies turn my babies into jailbirds.

Paige helped me make a simple friendship bracelet one day and she decided that she wanted to make more, so we made them for the playgroup Valentine's party. She signed all 15 of them herself. It was fun to see her excited to give them all out. 

Some days, we play a lot of dress-up.

Anna

Boo

Some days, we don't get dressed at all. 

Boo

It's really hard to get pictures of Boo lately. As soon as Anna sees the camera, she rushes over and tackles me. So most of the pictures look like this:

I love post-bath baby mohawks. Anna bumped into the entertainment center shortly after this photo and won herself a black eye to go with the cut on her forehead. Sometimes I have a hard time believing this little dare-devil is sweet Emma's twin sister.

Toes, Teeth, and Mountain Climbing

Paige and I decided to paint each others' nails while the babies napped. After applying the pink paint to my toes with minimal smears, she blew on them and looked at me sternly saying, "Now don't move until your toes are dry, okay? I'll be right back." She went into her room and while I sat on the stool blowing on my toes, Anna started to cry, so I went to calm her down before she woke Emma up. As I was tucking her back in I heard Paige go back into the kitchen and growl. "Ugh! I TOLD her not to go until her toes were dry and I came back!" She stomped back into her room and continued harrumphing until I came in and apologized for not listening.

We were making omelets, and Paige picked up one of the eggs very carefully and said, "One day, I'm going to take an egg and give it to a penguin so that it can be his baby!" That poor, sad, confused little chicken.

Everything magically turned into princesses today! Paige put on her fairy tutu and "poof!" the blinds were princesses! "Poof!" The TV was a princess. "Poof!" The babies are baby princesses! "Poof!" Daddy is a daddy-princess!...

Yesterday definitely won the weirdest-dinner-of-the-week award. I didn't feel like cooking much, so I started making some raspberry oatmeal. But, we needed a vegetable, right? I mean, it was dinner. nd what vegetable goes with oatmeal? Miso-sauted broccoli! Add to that the leftover cold pizza, and I could almost hear Tom Colicchio kicking me off TopChef for lack of cohesion. Oh well. At least Paige actually ate her food.

Emma's finally sitting and crawling! She's wobbly and slow. And her crawling is still army-style, but she's mobile! Emma also has her first tooth! A tiny bottom left one, with a second looking to be close behind.

Anna's the only one left toothless. She doesn't seem to mind though. She's too busy trying to climb the walls. She's an expert crawler now. Most obstacles (toys, clothes, her sisters) are no match for her dauntless curiosity. We've been blocking off the kitchen with a laundry basket, but she managed to crawl into it the other day. She's pulled herself into a standing position a couple times, but then she gets over-confident and lets go or tries to walk. She thinks she's pretty hot stuff.

Holiday Happy

Any time Anna is on the ground lately she bolts for the kitchen to watch the washing machine and to see what she can find on the floor to eat. Luckily, Grandma sent us an early Christmas present to match the one we'd borrowed. I think they like it.

Anna

Emma

 Paige loves her new puzzles and games, but I think that the biggest hits with this girl were the shoes and tutu. She's worn both every single day with whatever accessories she can find. She tells us that her prince is going to come to her house soon and take her out dancing. She also says that Tinkerbelle is her sister and all the fairies need to come stay at our house during winter so their wings don't freeze. Yeah, okay.

As for the rest of Christmas, Jeff and I got a crockpot, a haircutting kit, and a small set of Corelle dishes dishes. I was emptying the dishwasher yesterday, thinking about how much I love Corelle, and without thinking I told Jeff, "I testimony of these plates. They're the best ever." So there you go. 

Otherwise, we've been eating cheese and chocolate in copious amounts while we try to unearth our livingroom floor. 
Oh! We also went to see the lights at the DC temple. So pretty! Paige had fun, and the babies slept.

Happy Christmas!

Snow Day

We've had a couple of really heavy snowstorms out here that shut a lot of things down for a couple days. Tuesday, we were supposed to have a check-up for the twins, but we got a call at 7 am saying that they were closing the office for the day and would call to reschedule later this week. School was cancelled as well, so after shutting our alarm off, Jeff and I went back to bed, dreaming that the babies would happen to sleep in absurdly late.

An hour later, we woke up to Paige running around the living room shouting, "Everybody! Wake up! It's Christmas! It's Christmas!" She jumped onto our bed and all sleeping was ended.

With no where else to go, we spent the day reading books,

(Okay, this is from last week when Jeff's dad got to come visit us for a couple days, but it's too cute not to share)

Playing dress up,

Eating (while playing with our toes),

And sometimes just sitting around.

Anna and Boo

It was a pretty good day.

I love my Boo

Anna is crazy wiggly lately, crawling after everyone and everything. For example:

When she gets tired of swimming across the floor, she takes breaks with her favorite blankie:

Thanksgiving!

We were this close to spending Thanksgiving by ourselves in our apartment this year. Luckily, we remembered that Jeff's Uncle Dave and family live not too far away, and quickly invited ourselves over dinner. (Let's have a turkey dinner! You bring the turkey! All in favor?)

We also coerced them into coming out in the cold and taking a family picture of us! ...Manners are not always our strongest suite.

At any rate, they handled our 3-ring circus gracefully, and we had a very fun time. They even put on an ice show! Dry ice in apple juice is awesome, by the way, as is spending Thanksgiving with physics nerds. Ah, science! 

 

Paige had a grand time. She cried when we had to come home.