Salt Lake

This post is a little late, but we spent a week in Salt Lake at the beginning of April. All my siblings were able to make it, and we packed a lot into that week! One of the main reasons we all made the trip at this time was to attend a session of General Conference for my dad's last conference in the Tabernacle choir. We'll miss watching for him on tv during conference!

We were nervous to make the long drive to Utah with all the boys, but it ended up working out fine. We stopped in Boise on the way, and Lindsey and Thomas were nice enough to let us stay at their place. We loved getting to see them! Once we were in Boise, we were so nervous about another 5 hour drive the next day, so the first time the babies woke up during the night (around 2 or 3), we took off and made the rest of the trip. This actually worked out great since all 3 boys slept almost the whole way. We did the same thing on the way back, too.

We arrived in Salt Lake just in time to spend Easter with my family.

Elliott and Truman with their baskets

The Easter bunny brought lots of fun stuff

With Aunt Dana and Uncle Reuben (E, T)

The big boys had an Easter egg hunt outside

Tru

Elliott and Grandpa

Cutie sleeping cousins!

My parents got Grandparent passes to "This is the Place" and took the boys twice. Rob and I went one of the days with my mom, Katie, and the boys, and we liked looking at all the old buildings. And Collin loved the petting zoo and the train ride.

Babies

Grandma with Collin, Dillon, and Kyson

My parents took us all out to a buffet one of the nights

My mom's birthday was during the week. Since she turned 64, we made it a Beatles "When I'm 64" party. We each got her a gift from a lyric to the song (such as, "doing the garden, digging the weeds . . . = gardening gloves), and decorated with Beatles stuff and more song lyrics.

We also had a baby shower for Katie while we were all there. Fortunately, my mom's friend helped with it a lot and it turned out great. Baby Scout is now a month old!

At the baby shower. (Liz has Tru, I have Elliott). The twins loved their Aunt Liz! She was so helpful with them and even changed both of their poopy diapers during this baby shower :)

All the girls had a bridal shower too for my niece Nicole, who is now married! We had to leave before then, so I missed out on it, but that was one of the other things we were celebrating that week.

The trip ended up being really packed! We had lots to celebrate. We also ended up selling our car while we were there, which was a little crazy, but we were glad we did. We'd had it listed for a long time in Portland and thought we'd give it a shot in Utah, and it sold quickly. We rented a van to drive home, and then bought our new minivan the next week. Anyway, that made our trip a little more busy. But we still squeezed in everything we wanted to do.

At the end of the week was Conference. We attended the Saturday morning session, and enjoyed watching my dad sing in the choir. Who knows when we'll ever make it to conference again.

And we took a few family pictures while we were there:

The whole group

The Grandkids (minus the rest of the Hatfields and Hamiltons)

We had such a good time, and wish we had more time there. Collin loved playing with his cousins and being able to play outside in the yard all day. He was a little overstimulated at times (he had his breakdowns) but he had a blast and still talks about "Kyson Dee-On" and "Gra-Ma, Ba-Pa house", and "Utah far far away." There must be more pictures of the kids somewhere, so hopefully I'll remember to add some later!

Spring Catch-Up

Spring is here and we're loving the longer days and the warmer weather.

Rob is back to a full school schedule- since he took the "split" option, the last 3 quarters were a reduced course load and it was awesome- but now he's back to being gone until dinner time every weekday. He was offsited to a clinic in Gresham for his internship, and he loves what he does. He always seems to have lots of exams to study for, and school keeps him pretty busy.

Best dad with his three look-alikes.

I am actually feeling pretty good about how our days are going! I'm back to going to the gym in the mornings. It's definitely a challenge getting all of us there, but I love getting out of the house each day; it really helps me feel like my days have structure, and I like for the boys to get some social interaction. Mostly I think it feels good to finally be able to leave the house alone with all three. I sometimes wonder how I must look during the process of loading and unloading two car seats, a stroller, and a toddler, trying to keep Collin from running off into the street while pushing a gigantic double stroller (and just hoping someone is there to open the door for me everywhere I go), and I get a lot of "You have your hands full!" comments. And that's just getting from the car to the door of the building. (Actually, just thinking about it stresses me out a little bit- I still have a little anxiety about going places!) But it's starting to get easier and after a successful trip, I feel awesome (and exhausted).

The weather has been nice lately, and whenever we head outside to take a walk around the complex, we almost always run into friends. The other day, we went outside and we didn't see anyone out there. Right away, Collin started saying "Where are you, Collin's friends? Oh no, everybody gone!" and he was sad when I told him everyone was probably inside. (Fortunately, we turned the corner and found some friends after all. We're so lucky to have so many good friends living so close!) Collin says the funniest things and he's speaking in sentences more and more. My favorite is when he quotes movies. Lately, it's the bad guy affirmation from Wreck-It Ralph. We haven't put much effort into potty training yet, but he'll pee on the toilet and when he's done, he says "ta-da!" I have no idea where he got that. He is a mommy's boy lately, and is always climbing on me, especially when I'm changing babies' diapers. When I put him to bed and ask how many kisses he wants, he says "Yots of kisses, yots of hugs!" This boy is so, so sweet.

The twins are already 6 months old! (Side note, we survived the first 6 months of having twins!) They just keep getting cuter, I can't get enough of them! At their 6 month appointment, Elliott weighed 16lb, 5oz, and Truman weighed 15lb, 8oz. They definitely look very different to us, and I think Collin can tell them apart most of the time. We started feeding them rice cereal last week, and they have tried avocado. Truman got the hang of eating solids right away, but Elliott has been a little more skeptical. They are such content babies and they smile so easily. When they both look at me and smile or laugh, I can't even handle their cuteness. They roll all over the place, and they love books. When both babies are fussy, I can just start reading a book to them and they both instantly stop fussing and stare at the book.

Even though there are (many) parts of my days that are stressful with the constant demands of 3 little boys at once, my house is usually a mess, and I don't get nearly enough sleep, just writing about my boys makes me feel like the luckiest person in the world. Those little faces bring me so much happiness, and all the difficult moments are so greatly outweighed by the good ones- the ones that include "yots of kisses, yots of hugs."

Elliott

Tru

This picture was from February

Morning snuggles

Collin loves his brothers so much.

He always likes laying down with them on the floor

Matchy hats! These were Christmas presents from the Ottos :)

We called it "Fort Collin"

Don't you just want to snuggle these babies?!

Super Collin! This is one way he helps us with our workouts.

I had to take a picture of their cuteness from my view while I was reading to them. They were just staring up at the book, arms linked. 

Most precious thing.

Elliott Beau

Truman Miles

January

We're back into the swing of things with school, and we're all adjusting pretty well. Truman and Elliott are already 3 months old! They are such sweet boys, and are starting to be more interactive when we talk to them. They smile easily now and are getting close to laughing. They love being read to and sung to. Their naps are sporadic but getting a little more regular, and some days they have exact opposite nap schedules. The good thing about this is that I have more one-on-one time with each of them and less time with two babies crying or needing to be held at the same time. However, it is a little tiring when the second I finally get one baby to fall asleep, his brother is opening his eyes. These babies keep me very busy and so does Collin, but I love being with my boys.
The twins still sleep well at night. We have been putting them to bed the same time as Collin and are amazed every day at how much different an experience this is than when Collin was a newborn. I remember the dread and frustration when nighttime came around, and the hours it took to get Collin to sleep, only for him to wake up frequently and cry for a long time while we were both hopelessly exhausted. With the twins, though, I lay with them on our bed, swaddle them, feed them a bottle/ nurse and sing a few songs, and they are out- sometimes within 5 minutes. During a typical night, they wake up to eat around 3 or 4, then go back to sleep without crying. Then usually, when it's too early to get up, at least one baby will wake up so I'll bring him into bed with me and we'll snooze. I often spend the early mornings half-sleeping with a baby on each side, rolling back and forth to nurse when one stirs, until Collin wakes up (which is typically around 8:30 right now). I don't mind it and feel well rested most of the time, which still amazes us. Of course, some nights aren't as perfect. Sometimes they are cranky in the evening and it takes longer to get them to sleep, and sometimes they wake up more frequently during the night, but for the most part, they are amazing nighttime sleepers.
Collin just keeps getting funnier. He loves making people laugh and being silly. His favorite books right now are The Cat in the Hat, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (much to Rob's dismay). His crib has become a little ridiculous. Not only does he insist on sleeping in a nest of every stuffed animal he owns, he also requests several books to be in there with him. For a while, when we would check on him later at night, we'd try sneaking a few things out. Until one night he woke up at around 4:00 crying for all the stuffed animals that were missing. He always has his songbook of primary songs in his crib, and at bedtime, he asks us to sing the "daddy song," "mommy song," and "spring song." (Heavenly Father Loves Me). Other honorable mentions include "hello song" and "mission." He likes to stall bedtime and get as many songs as he can! Also, for about 2 months, he didn't want to go to sleep without a Band-Aid on his finger. When we would start to leave, he would say "Band-Aid! Blue Band-Aid please! Red Band-Aid!" until we got him one, then he would say "this finger" and hold out the finger he wanted it on. We finally ran out and told him they were gone, so now at bed time he says "band-aid all gone." We are planning to move him into a toddler bed soon, but he's never tried getting out of his crib so we are fine with the setup for now.

 And some pictures from January!

We tried out Collin's new tunnel and tent set one evening. We turned off all the lights and gathered "s'more" type treats and brought out a flashlight to play with. Collin loved it!

Happy chocolate-faced boy

Testing out the flashlight

Cuties in their Bumbos! I sometimes put them in those and have them face each other.

3 boys in their own little chairs

Tru has the best hair! It goes into a perfect faux hawk on its own, especially right after a bath (we fluff it up a little when it's wet so it doesn't stick to his head, and it dries like this). Elliott doesn't have much hair on top. This is the easiest way to tell them apart right now!

Cozy

Happy Elliott

I've started asking Collin what he wants to wear in the mornings, and he used to always choose a Halloween shirt that is ugly and too small. So I was glad the other day when he said "red sweater."

I just love these little bellies!

Brothers