My Loves

I haven't gotten many pictures of me with the babes.  Mostly because I never get ready :)  I feel like my main role right now is "milking machine".  I feel like a cow.  I feed from sun up to sun down!  I am normally just in silky button up pajamas because that is what is comfortable and allows the easiest access.  I take a shower a day and that is NOT enough.  The second I get out I am covered in either milk, spit up, poop, or pee :)  I'm sure once my help leaves I won't even have a spare second to shower so everyone might just want to steer clear for awhile!

I have had a few reasons to get ready this week so I decided to take advantage and bust out the camera. It feels so good to get ready, even if it was just for a visitor coming over to my house.  I think after so many days of feeling gross, getting dressed and putting my make up on made me feel like a new woman.  My weight has come off a lot faster this time around.  I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I am nursing TWO babies instead of one.  I still have ten of my 46 pounds to go but I am proud to say that I am in my jeans and they button! (Never mind that they kinda, sorta cut off my circulation....I am in them and that is all that matters! Ha!)

My Twin Loves:

My Hubby Love:

Rick is so great with the babies.  When he walks in the door, Street is usually screaming his head off, so Rick takes over and does the magic bounce for him.  We can all do the bounce, but none of us can last as long as he can.  It must be his huge muscles :)

Doing the bounce...notice Street is calm

The second he stopped the bounce for a pic...Street freaks out :)

Loving his precious Livvi

 My Daci Love:

I had so much fun doing something special for Daci on Valentine's Day.  I love to make holidays special and I have felt like I haven't done much for her since the babies were born.  Luckily, the morning was going really smoothly with the twinners (Street laid on the floor, without screaming, for a half hour straight!) so I decided to whip up some pink, heart shaped pancakes for Daci and give her her Valentine.  She was SO excited!  She had never even heard of Valentine's Day until the morning of and after I gave her her Valentine it was all she could talk about.  She wanted to make Valentine's for all of her family members, she wanted to be a Valentine Princess and she wanted to do Valentine dances :)  She is so cute!

with her breakfast

Her Valentine

Holding Livvi in her Valentine outfit

Blowing Valentine kisses

Playing with Livvi.  Whenever she wants to play with or hold a baby we give her Livvi....she is much more patient with Daci than Street is :)

Livvi on Valentines Day.  Daci had to put her kitty next to her for the picture :)

Street on V-Day.  What a handsome guy!

My Three Loves

The cute twinners sleeping side by side, facing  each other and sucking on their binks.  Priceless!

Personalities

My mom and grandma left and Penny came to help out.  I'm so grateful for  all the help.  Seriously, having two infants and a three year old is so much harder than I ever thought it would be.  The few times I have been left alone with them, I have nearly lost my mind.  It is so overwhelming to have three kids needing your attention that very second!  It is so hard to not be short and lose my cool with Daci when she is knocking things over and climbing all over me.  I know she is just trying to help and I don't want her to see my frustration, but when I have babies screaming and her all over me I can't barely contain my anxiety! I am absolutely terrified that I won't be the mother that I want to be when it is just me and the three hoodlums all day long.  I want to be patient and loving and calm but I can already picture a frazzled mess in my head.  I need to think positively and know that I wasn't given more than I am able to handle.  Heavenly Father wouldn't do that to me.  I am so blessed to have these three amazing children and I love them with my whole heart.  I CAN do this and I will do it...even if I'm a hot mess in the process :)

These two babies couldn't be any more different. Street is high maintenance and completely adorable all at the same time.  He fusses a lot and constantly wants to be held.  I'm pretty sure he has some reflux.  He spits up a lot of his meal and he cries out in pain quite a bit.  He has a really hard time falling asleep during the day unless you have him pulled in tight to your body with his binkie in.  When he is REALLY freaking out the only thing that calms him is holding him out from your body, and just bouncing him over and over.  The second you stop, he freaks out again :)  He has the most beautiful black eyes and when he is calm he will just stare deep into your eyes.  He is so precious and pulls the cutest faces.  I am so in love with him.  It breaks my heart when he is acting like he is in pain. I just want to take it away from him!  He wakes up every three hours like clock work for food.  Luckily, he has figured out at night that he has to go straight back to bed and that we won't hold him to go to sleep. He is always the first to wake up at night and we have to wake up Livvi for him.  They eat, and then go straight back to bed.

Livvi is the calmest, chillest baby I have ever seen.  I'm so grateful for her and her sweet disposition.  I don't know what I would do if I had two like Street :)  She is so patient with Street.  If they are laying next to each other and he is freaking out he will usually be smacking her in the face.  She doesn't care :) She just lays there and patiently waits for the tantrum to be over.  She rarely cries.  When she does its just one quick little squawk every 30 seconds or so.  Once in a blue moon she will be really upset and cry hard.  She also has beautiful eyes.  Hers are blue and she seems to stare right into your soul.  She seems so wise.  She will just chill on the floor or in the bassinet, wide awake, forever.  And then when she is ready to go to sleep she just shuts her eyes and drifts off.  Seriously, the perfect baby.  I often think that she would already be sleeping through the night if we didn't have to wake her up.

Last night was quite the interesting experience.  Penny took Daci to Carly's house and they had a sleepover over there.  Rick and I took care of the babies at our house.  At one point, Rick needed to go have a little meeting with Micah for some work stuff.  I told him to wait til they were asleep. Well, they ate at 4:45pm, they both cried until 6:30pm, by this time they were both FREAKING OUT and we had tried everything.  So, I decided to give them more to eat (they were both rooting also).  We got them set up with bottles and I told Rick to go because they would surely fall asleep after their bottles, they had been up for a long time and they had worn themselves out from crying.  Right?  Well as soon as the bottles were gone they started right back up again.  This time, it was ten times worse.  BOTH of them.  It was so out of character for Livvi. After an hr and a half our pure madness (and a few tears of my own shed) I called Rick and told him to come home.  He came home and we each took a screaming baby.  After another hour of crying we decided to bathe them, feed them, and hopefully put them down.  Luckily after their bath and food they were exhausted.  We put them down and they didn't get back up until 2:30am!  Wahoo!  They slept for 5.5 hours!  Maybe I can put up with some fussy hours if I get a good sleep stretch....then again, maybe not :)  After their 5.5 hour stretch they had a 3.5 hr one and then a 3 hr one.  I'm really hoping I can get them stretching to four hours at a time by next week :)  Wish me luck!!


Here are a few pics from the last week or so.

Daci helping feed both babies

Street in the bouncer

Yia Yia with her granbabies

Princess Snow White Daci with her twins.

She loves to hold them!

Livvi at three weeks 

What she looks like when she lets out her squawk :)

I love this pic.  It looks like Daci is telling him a story and he is listening intently

Street at three weeks

This is what it usually looks like at our house.  Street screaming and Livvi chilling :)

Daci's Birthday Celebration!

Daci's 3rd Birthday is in 2 weeks on February 21st but since we had so much of her family out here on Sunday we decided to have her party then.  Rick got back from a recruiting trip out in Utah on Sunday and his mom flew back with him so she could help me out for a while.  My mom and grandma left Monday morning so we had a little bit of an overlap with everyone here! It was so much fun to throw a special celebration for Daci with so many people that love and adore her.  She had a wonderful day!


We started the morning out with a little 3 year old photo shoot :)

Then we snapped some photos of my mom and I, my mom and grandma, and my grandma and I.  I'm so glad I have these pictures.  They were such a great help and I was so sad to see them go.  It made me realize how much I miss my family since moving out here.  I really have loved living in Naperville but it is hard to not see my mom a few times a week or go visit my grandma who just lived down the road from me in Utah.

Daci had so much fun with her grandma and GG!  She was so sad to see them go as well.

Then the celebration began!  I made some gluten free cupcakes and a delicious dinner (with help from my grandma and mom of course!) and Carly made a BEAUTIFUL cake.  I decorated the night before so Daci would wake up to a surprise.  My grandma said when she saw her balloons and decorations she said, "Oh my decorations are beautiful!  I love my mommy!" That made staying up a little later the night before all worth it :)

Carly made these fondant flowers.  How gorgeous!  The cake was a strawberry cake with strawberry frosting. Everyone said it was amazing!

Daci was so excited about her cake, cupcakes, and presents!

Working up their energy for the big celebration :)

Daci's Yia Yia got to be at the party too!  Daci was so excited to see her.

Meeting Livvi for the first time

After dinner we ate the cake and ice cream (Daci's favorite, Strawberry Oberweis)

She was so excited while we were singing to her :)

She couldn't quite figure out how to blow the candles out.  She kept blowing up (notice her bangs are flying in the air?) so after four blows Rick helped her out without her knowing :)

So happy with her cake and ice cream

Time for presents!

Aunt Sophie got her The Napping House

Looking at her card from Sophie

Yia Yia got her a doctor kit

Mom and Dad got her a pretty dress

Grandma got her a Hello Kitty sweatsuit

Mom and Dad got her a play makeup and hair styling kit

GG got her a sweater, a princess wand and some lipgloss and nail polish

Aunt Carly, Uncle Micah and Leni got her a princess book with play figurines

She had a wonderful celebration and I'm so glad we got to do a special day for her with all the people she loves.  SHe has handled sharing attention with the babies so well and I really wanted her to feel like this was all about her.  Love you doodle bug!