Halloween Eve

Looks like it's time for us to get some legit toys for our babes. Here they are chewing on random stuff they found on our bedroom floor.

I love the area where we live and that we live so close to so many great people. If you look closely, you can see Emma in her red dress across the street, boo-ing one of our neighbors. I love that I can send her on errands to our neighbors and see her from our front door.

The girlies love serenading the babies with their violins. Lucy really wants to be a part of it. She has an old violin Dallas' mom got for her and she loves playing on it but has not yet started violin lessons. Maybe soon though because she really wants to do what her sisters do.

I went to spend some time with some friends tonight and was so impressed with Dallas when I got home. (Let's be honest - I'm always impressed with him and what he does with his time :) Anyway, he got the babes to sleep, made his pie crust and carved all these pumpkins for us. What a guy. He jokes that is our family Halloween tradition - we tell him how we want the pumpkins to look and he does it. 

Tonight we had a little visitor a little after midnight. Dallas and I had not even gone to bed yet and Alice woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed thinking it was morning. We let her know that it was still the middle of the night - we hadn't even gone to bed yet! Dallas took her out to see the pumpkins and she was so happy.

The other thing I was going to mention was running on the treadmill and listening to one of the trainers talk about mindfulness. I could be a lot better with being mindful. Mindful of what I am doing with my time, how I am interacting with my family, what I am eating, etc. Also, I really like our treadmill. I like that I can "travel the world" and run in lots of different places. Makes a treadmill way more exciting. :)

Alice the Babysitter

First of all, we had our daily morning photoshoot. Today it was of the twins in these super cute outfits.  

I have no idea what happened with our life after that, but one thing I do know - Alice is already a great babysitter! She might be starting preschool soon and I am getting worried what I will do without her! Today I got a video of her singing to the babies. She had been up there watching them for at least 15 minutes and I figured I should go check on them. This is what I found:

At one point during Alice's babysitting, she ran down the stairs saying, "Mom! Mabel is doing something mean to Olive!" I came up the stairs and this is what I found:

Here's the video of Mabel chomping on Olive's foot:

And here are the girlies playing with some of the gifts they got from our neighbors. They LOVED doing these stickers onto pictures. Alice said, "Mom, this is tough - but it is so much fun!" Alice also made sure Lucy knew that we had to follow the "instructions" and not just put stickers wherever.

Trying to Build Heaven

 Different plan today. Decided to not run first and instead make sure morning jobs get done and help kids get the day started right. Lucy tried to wipe herself after doing her poops and got kinda messy so we started the day with a bath. Honestly, it was time for one anyway. 

Then we did our morning jobs and the girls helped me sort the laundry. We had all woken up by 6 and by 8 were ready to head down to breakfast. We still didn't read scriptures or history this morning. 

After breakfast I focused on making sure Emma was really ready for school i.e. had her supplies and her chrome book and its charger and was logged in and all ready to go. Then we checked which assignments had been due, found them, took pics and uploaded those. I gotta say,  I kind of like this way of turning work in. I feel as a teacher it would be awesome! No loads and loads of loads of papers to lug home. 

By the time we finished that up it was 9 and school time. As soon as Emma started school, Alice was excited to get her handwriting going.  Wow - we have such motivated kids (they get that from Dallas). So then it was just me and Lucy and Olive (Mabel was napping). Lucy recognized her opportunity and quickly positioned herself on a chair to hold Olive. Here they are :)

Then Lucy and I got to work making a yummy cookie bar because Alice was having a friend over today! And this is the FIRST time that we have specifically invited a friend over just for Alice. 

This all started last night after Dallas got the girls to bed. He came and told me Alice had prayed that she would get to play with this friend. So last night I texted his mom and we set up a play date for today! I wanted to be sure today was a special day so we decided to make a treat. Lucy was so excited to help...especially since there were "yoclate yips" involved.:)

Here I am with sweet Olive. She chilled in her swing for a bit while Lucy and I got the cookie together, but once I started the blender,  Olive decided it was time to be held.

We got to have two different sets of friends come over and that was great! And I really don't remember what else I was going to say about this day except for that I worked to keep in mind "build heaven today". And that helped me think - if I were in heaven, how would I act? What would I want our home to be like? How would I talk to my children? What would I do with my time? It was a good thing for me to think about throughout the day and I really like that idea - don't wait for heaven to come. Make heaven happen now. 

 

Beautiful Day

Today was such a great day. It started off with me attempting a HITT workout with some friends at 5:30 a.m. I'm never sure if I'm doing the right form or anything...but I am usually pretty sore the next day so that's a good sign, right? 

Anyway, after that I figured I'd try to get my run in before breakfast instead of afterwards. So that meant all the kids had to come down to the basement with me. Which meant I didn't really get down there til about 7 or so. It was nice running before breakfast because I think everyone was in a better mood - nobody was fussy or cranky with each other. However, we didn't do any of our morning jobs (making beds, doing hair, getting dressed, reading history or scriptures, nada...) so I don't know if this is something I will stick with. Anyway, here's a pic I took while I was running. I couldn't get Emma in the shot - she was playing the piano.

Later today the girls continued a game they'd started yesterday. They get out all the chairs, benches, etc. and they use them to pretend they are driving or going on an airplane. In these pictures I believe they are driving to the airport. I'll see if I can include some videos as well. The girls packed their bags and brought water bottles and walked through security and waited til it was "family boarding". As you can tell, we are a Southwest Airlines family. I LOVE when the girls play like this. They have such great imaginations and are so excited to play with each other. It's moments like these that I never want to send Emma to school and am so grateful for virtual school - which has allowed Emma to still spend so much time with her sisters.

After Emma finished virtual school, we headed straight to the park. They had wanted to go after lunch today with their friend Hannah but we didn't have enough time, so I promised them we'd go after school. I was so proud of Alice today. There was another friend at the park and I encouraged Alice to play with her. Alice immediately did just that. She offered her some pretend ice cream and kept at that for a while. After a while I asked Alice to ask the little girl what she would like to play and Lily responded, "Tag!" I worried Alice might not like that or want to do something else, but she stopped the ice cream play and started running and said, "Okay! Catch me!" It was so sweet to see Alice playing with a little friend. She really hasn't had much opportunity since COVID. She was just starting to get interested in playing with friends and then COVID came. It made my heart super happy to see her playing so well with a new friend today.

The girls seemed like they could have played at the park forever. They were all so happy and playing so well. But we had skipped out on violin practice so we could come to the park right away. I reminded them about practicing violin with Dallas and they went racing back home. Seriously, I don't know what was in the weather but there were ZERO cranky moments from anyone today.

They were just so sweet and good and full of life and happiness, I had to take a picture of the three of them together.  

Even though today was such a good day, I felt like I needed some Amy-time. I was going to go shopping and run errands with myself and the babies, but with such good weather, I decided to just go on a walk. Here we are on a trail next to my house. Beautiful, right? I listened to a podcast called "Listen, Learn, Love". One of my friends from BYU, Andy Proctor, posted that he'd been interviewed on this podcast so I listened to it. It was really great. One specific take home message I loved was "build heaven now". The next podcast was about a woman whose sister was LGBTQ+ and how we all need to love others and not judge. And also educate ourselves so that we aren't saying or doing hurtful and untrue things.

Oh and Mabel had conked out because she'd stayed awake all day while Olive had taken a nice long nap. So that's why you just see Olive here. Mabel is snoozing under the red cover.

Another sweet neighbor brought us yummy food! We are so spoiled! Here are the girlies enjoying some incredible egg rolls and fried chicken!

And then I don't remember why...the twins must have taken a late nap or something...but they stayed up way past their normal bedtime. Usually Dallas and I are pretty excited to get the kids to bed at a good time, but tonight it was fun to just sit on the couch, the two of us, playing with our two happy babies. Here are pics of us with them.

 

Pumpkin Painting

I fell asleep last night before writing in the blog - so here are some pics from yesterday. I feel like I had some good thoughts to share...but my mind is now blank. Oh well. That's what happens when I don't write the day of :/

As always, waking up to one of the girls reading to the babies in our closet

Look at these adorable outfits! And the babies too, of course :) Dallas' sister made these I believe. Dallas is learning Spanish so he insists it says, "She sees it" but whatever :)

Emma must have slept in this day! Looks like Lucy and Alice got first and second place for baby play time. They all love to play with the babies and sometimes I have to remind them not to fight over them. Good thing we got TWO babies!

Babes in their tutus and Dallas was just so cute holding them so I took a pic. I think there might have been another reason I took this picture...but I can't remember now. Ah! Here is a video - it appears I also took pictures/video because the babies were just so cute and happy. Also, they were trying to help Dallas with his Duolingo.

The girls were excited to carve pumpkins but our pumpkins are already kind of going bad! I don't know what's going on this year... so we decided to paint them for now and maybe we'll carve them in a few days so that they will hopefully stay good til Halloween!

Also, we got boo-ed again! We are so lucky! The girls were super excited! They boo-ed one family today and now we get to boo another one tomorrow :)

 

Violin + Babies

We still haven't gotten a charger for our computer so I'm doing this on our tablet and for some reason - internet is lousy on the tablet so there's a bunch of cute videos I want to upload but that will have to be another day.

Anyway, here are our darling babies listening to Dallas play the violin for them this morning. Alice did this for them yesterday. It is so sweet when the girls play the violin for the babies. They are the cutest little audience.

Haha! Mabel is so happy to see me :)

Back to Daddy - they really do love listening to their sisters and Dallas play for them.

This is church time. We had just finished sacrament portion of church and Dallas had taken Lucy upstairs for her nap. Emma then gave Alice and I a little impromptu talk on "patience" (she mentioned having to wait for her pizza to cook and for her turn with a book, etc.) and then played a song she made up on the piano that had to do with her talk. It was during Emma's song when Dallas came back down the stairs with Olive. She was supposed to be sleeping...but instead wanted a photo shoot with Alice and myself. :)

Five minutes later, Dallas came down with Mabel as well. So here I am with both babes!

The rest of the day was spent inside our house. I literally have not even opened the door to go outside. It has been rainy all day. I definitely have eaten way more snacks and treats than necessary. All delicious but really excited to get my eating and snacking habits in a better place.

 

Errands

 Emma's pumpkin went bad within just a few days of getting it from the pumpkin patch. She was really disappointed but we told her we could get another. So today, while Dallas played Ultimate Frisbee, all five girls and I went back to the pumpkin patch for a new pumpkin. The poor patch was desolate but we found something and the lady gave it to us for free since the other one was bad. That was a nice surprise! 

Emma lugging back the best pumpkin she could find.

The next high-priority errand was going to Dollar Tree and Aldi to get things for the girls to "boo" one of their friends. The girls were really excited to pick things out but I limited them to a total of 5 dollars at the dollar store and then we got some snacks at Aldi. While in the car there were some scats about...I don't even remember. But I was really impressed with Emma trying to work things out for everyone while I was driving and doubly impressed with Alice and Lucy listening to her and following her suggestions. That was really nice. 

Here's the girlies outside Dollar Tree.

Bread and Barbara

 Today was the last day of my parents' visit. And we have done just about everything we had hoped to do - go to DC, Annapolis, make some of my mom's power cookies (twice!), see some houses (aka tour model homes because that's fun to do), go on a date with just them and us, go on a family date, have friday movie night, eat pie together, etc. But one thing my mom hadn't done that she wanted to do was make bread with my kids and have my kids meet Barbara! So we did both of those today.

I came back from my run to this scene. Which is super cute except for that little baby was suppose to be sleeping... Olive and Mabel had a lot of fun today taking turns not sleeping so there was always one baby awake :)

Since Mabel was awake she got to hang out with me while I got ready. I have to be careful with these babes though - they can push off on the floor and move all around in these bumbos.

The girlies showing off the kitty breads they made (yes, they are wearing their kitty outfits again :) They were especially excited about getting to wear "kitty liner" today.

Barbara Lauman came to visit - here we are on a walk. The girls loved getting to meet Barbara :)

Playing at a sweet park we found.

My parents and Barbara chilling at the park.

The girlies showing off their now cooked kitty breads before eating them for dinner.

Kitty Cats

Hey! Happy Thursday! Our computer charger broke on Wednesday so I haven't been posting. Its still out so I'm typing from our tablet. Not cool, but better than nothing. So if all posts from wednesday are seeming a little less and/or late...that's why.  

So yesterday the girls decided on their costumes. Both last year and this year I have been surprised by their choice. I always think they are going to choose something princess-y and for the beginning of October that is what they were planning (initially Emma had been saying she wanted to be Jasmine and Alice had been saying she wanted to be Ariel and Lucy said she wanted to be Olaf...or Ariel). Anyway, I'm not sure where they got their idea, but suddenly Emma wanted to be a kitty cat and so did Alice andLucy. Which is great - that is easy peasy! Dallas said he would make the tails but then I found a pack of ears, tail, and bow tie at walmart for four buckaroos and that is SOmuch easier than making something. At least for a bunch of sewing amateurs like Dallas and myself. 

The girlies wore their costumes as soon as we got home. And got a surprise from a ghost aka our sweet neighbor Hannah. :)

And here are the kitty cats enjoying some mint and butter pecan ice cream with Grandpa Robert.

 

Doctor, Kinder, Red Robin, 5 months!

 Alice had an appointment with a nephrologist today. Normally that wouldn't be fun, but! Dallas took off work so he could take her and they had a great time together. This is them after they got home from the doctor. Our girlies are so lucky to have Dallas as their dad.

Emma had a half day today so when Dallas and Alice returned from the doctor, we all went to Kinder Park! The girls were excited to show this park to grandma and grandpa and Dallas was excited to try out the Disc Golf.

This little turkey (Mabel)was trying to sneak in some one-on-one time while her sister was getting her nap. :)

Dallas trying out the course. He is way better than me. I am not sure it is my sport.

Alice playing with the instruments at the park. I am just realizing that any park that has stuff like this she always finds it and tries it out.

Lucy is SO happy we have a "lellow" disc.

Emma really wanted to play frisbee with Dallas. She didn't get to go on the course with him, but she was happy to play with him at the park.

Grandma and the girlies checking out the animals. Grandpa is not pictured because he is watching the sleeping babies in the shade. :)

Red Robin! This was the girls' choice for the family date Grandma and Grandpa took us on. They LOVE Red Robin - prob for its nonstop yummy fries. 

This was the day Emma decided she wanted to be a cat. She flipped her dark blue shirt inside out and got some dark blue pants and found these pink kitty ears she'd gotten for her birthday two years ago. As you will see tomorrow, we up the costume.

Alice is SO pleased that we got to eat at Red Robin.

Olive! You're awake! Sweet girl! I know, you werre beginning to think I'd forgotten about her, but no. She has just been really good with sleeping so she is not in as many pictures.

The whole crew after our scrumptious meal. Today was the first time I had a lettuce-wrapped burger. That's what Dallas always does since he's celiac and the last time we ate at Red Robin I thought  I should try it because A) I always make a mess trying to eat those delicious burgers and with a lettuce wrap, I would remember to eat it with a fork and kinife and B) it wouldn't hurt me to eat fewer calories. Anyway, it wasn't so bad - I think I'll try it again.

The after-party. The REAL reason the girls love Red Robin is for its balloons. They always get some on their way out. Here they are playing with them in the mall.

And right when I was going to bed, realized the babies turned 5 months today! Wow! They are sweet angels. I am so so grateful that we got to have twins and that they are so sweet. I still need to type up their birth story. Maybe that is something you can look forward to on Sunday.