The Babes' Half-Birthday!

It's Olive and Mabel's half-birthday! I know everybody says this - but time has flown! These babies have been so easy and happy and our girls have LOVED having two baby sisters. When I first found out we were having twins, I was surprised and excited and also a little worried. I worried about them being healthy, I worried about complications during labor, I worried about nursing two babies at once. Those were some of my biggest worries - I felt like I'd figure out the rest when they got here. And I am here to say - they have been angels. Such sweet babies. I always thought twins would be so hard, but these twins have been cake. 

Anyway! Here they are enjoying their half-birthday breakfast. 

And here's the girls talking about how excited they are for the half-birthday and that it happened to fall on a Saturday when we have "fancy breakfast" which is usually waffles or pancakes with eggs and sausage. 

One of our friends passed on some dress-ups and the girls were thrilled to try them all on (I know Alice doesn't look it, but she was elated to find an Elsa dress just for her.)

Lucy the lamb with a toy computer that was also passed on to us.

Here's Dallas with the babes right before he heads off to frisbee. 

Haha. I love these pictures of the babes with this toy laptop. 

Mabel looks so amazed at this level of technology.

I love Olive's big open-mouthed smiles.

Olive showing Mabel how to use the laptop.

And then you close it like this.

Mabel noticed the scooter and crawled all the way there. It made me laugh because Lucy started riding the scooter before she was one...looks like Mabel is already interested.

Happy Olive - she had just been chewing on Lucy's shoes.

The girlies wanted some paper and cardboard to make paper dolls. It was fun seeing them sitting out - cutting and coloring away.

Here is Dallas' delicious pie - Caramel Pear Pie. Super yummy!

The babies have started chewing on everything. They especially love nibbling on the girls' water bottles. 

Olive chomping on her toes.

 

Alice's Thanksgiving Show and Camping

Alice was so excited to do her Thanksgiving show. I love how sweet and good she is. 

This is their Thanksgiving feast. 

Cutest pilgrim there. :)

After she got home, we ran to the store for some essentials for our camping night. I was going to go by myself but Alice and Lucy both wanted to come while Emma hung out with Dallas and the babes.

Here we are having our "camping" feast - hotdogs on paper plates. Emma has really wanted to go camping and Dallas and I don't really have the necessary materials for camping (i.e. tents, flashlights, tarps, everything...) It's also starting to get cold. Anyway, the main problem is, Dallas and I are not much of campers. So we told Emma we could pretend camp. After our hot dog dinner, we turned off most of the lights and asked Alexa to play some night time music. Then Dallas and the babes and I sat on the couch while Emma, Alice, and Lucy placed their stuffed animals all over the house and drew and cut out trees and made a little camping wonderland. It was really sweet to just sit and watch them play. After that we played some card games and then enjoyed a smores cookie bar. That was yummy, but the girls probably would have been happy with just simple smores in the microwave. I think they really wanted to roast marshmallows. We ended the night with Emma and Alice sleeping under Emma's bed in our two sleeping bags. Lucy slept in her toddler bed and we let the girls step up reading books until they fell asleep in their sleeping bags. They are all so sweet.

Someday we should really take them camping. And also, for our next pretend camping trip, I want to do a scavenger hunt in the house and maybe have a craft or something. I thought of this during our dinner while Dallas and I reminisced about our previous camping experiences. 

 

Visiting Friends, Playing in the Grass

Another sweet morning of the girls playing with the babies in the closet. I took this pic around 6 a.m. - they had already been playing for quite a while. 

Today we got to go visit some friends! It was a beautiful day and we all had so much fun. Here are some pics of us enjoying a blustery picnic on their front lawn.  

This was the babies' first day to play in the grass. It was windy and a bit cold so I didn't really think they'd love it - but they did! So so much! They rolled around and smiled and loved it so much!

 

Neighbor, Banana Bread

This morning Emma got to have virtual school with her friend! She was SO excited! After she got there, I realized I missed a text message reminding me to have Emma bring a stuffed animal to dance with for music time. So I sent Alice and Lucy to bring it to her. They were so cute going across our little parking lot and then running down the sidewalk, holding hands in their matching outfits. Here's pics of them coming back to me. 

And here's some pics of Emma at her friends house doing virtual school. I have a feeling we will probably have many more shared days in the future. :)

I sorted through all the twins' clothes today and some of the girls' clothes as well. I found this Christmas dress that I thought might fit Lucy. She tried it on and decided to wear it the rest of the day. Here she is explaining to me why she needs another treat. I know...we have a lot of these pictures. :)

While Alice was at preschool and Lucy was taking her nap, Emma and I made some banana bread. Although Emma doesn't look it, she was actually super excited about having a mommy date AND making banana bread. Well, it ended up being chocolate-chip banana bread because that was Emma's request.

And here is sweet Lucy - awake from her nap and helping with the banana bread without even being asked. Lucy is truly so fast at everything. I hardly knew she was awake and already she'd grabbed a stool, moved it to the counter and found some teaspoons to help spoon the batter into the muffin tins.

Of course, she also did some taste-testing.

Yep. Pretty good.

Here is a pic of Alice at preschool. They are practicing for their Thanksgiving show that they are going to film for all of us on Friday. Alice LOVES preschool and I am so glad she is enjoying it. 

 

Restaurant, Handwriting, Lucy Date

This morning Emma helped me out with the babies by singing to them while I got my morning jobs done. Here she is singing "Five Little Ducks." That is definitely our go-to song. I like that Mabel is chomping on Emma's knee in this picture. They really will chomp on anything right now :)

Lucy wore her BYU t-shirt to bed and insisted on wearing it for her clothes during the day as well. I tried to explain to her that her BYU shirt can be a pajama or a day-time shirt but not both consecutively. She just looked at me and started chanting, "BYU! BYU! BYU!" Oh well - not a big deal. We'll wear it again. :)

Emma wanted to do a restaurant for breakfast and Alice was happy to assist! I am pretty sure Lucy was the customer. Here is Emma warming up some muffins and then passing them onto Alice who put them on her "tray" and then carried them over to Lucy.

Meanwhile, the babes are chilling over here, exploring toys and practicing moving all over. 

I think Alice was downstairs practicing the piano when I took this picture. Emma is working on her handwriting while her kindergarten class goes over sight words. Lucy decides she should be doing something productive as well and runs and grabs her favorite books and starts reading them out loud. Pretty cute. 

Emma's handwriting is SO good! I need to start practicing my own...

More of the babies. This is after Alice and I practiced piano. The babes were good sports and just played on the floor. I took a video because Olive kept eating her feet and also because they were kicking and squirming  so much! 

Later in the day - in the babes' room. Alice LOVES to play her violin for the babies. It is definitely a daily occurrence now. And I think the babies really enjoy it too.

Lucy got to come shopping with me at Aldi while Emma and Alice practiced their violin and played outside with their friends. It was so nice to have a little "Lucy-date." As always, I feel like I need to do way more one-on-one dates with our kids. Lucy was such a good helper at finding things and just fun to be with. I love our kids.

When we got home, Lucy decided it was time for the babies to read a book. So she picked some out and brought them to Dallas to read. 

A little Seterra right before bedtime.

This is what the babies look like after they finish nursing. I am holding them in my arms and they just finished for the night.