A Helper

I told the boys as soon as I mowed the backyard we could pull out the pool. They were so excited and wanted to fill it up as fast as possible so Jaden kept telling me he'd use the hose to fill it up and that I needed to fill up a cup and bring it out with water. In frustration I kept telling him that wouldn't be any faster and wouldn't do any good....BUT he convinced Landon to do it. Poor little Landon has been walking in and out of the house with his little cup of water. Hmmmm....they may finish filling a pool a whole second faster with Landon's help. I love these little moments:):):)

In the background you'll see egg shells. They've also been enjoying egg racing....I've had to limit them to one egg a day:)

Fun at the pool!

Our family loves to swim but it's definately gotten harder to do with the girls so we have to wait until daddy is around to go.

On Monday night we went as a family. Jaden really praticed his tricks and splashes...sorry fellow swimmers. Landon is working on getting braver and going to the deep end without help. He gets really nervous when he can no longer touch but we hope we can help him gain confidence so that soon we can take the girls too. Then it'll free up both us us to each hold a baby.

The girls and I hung out at the pool side. They were a hit. Almost every one had to stop and ask about them. It's so much fun having little girls.

Love this....

The boys have been doing more fighting then not lately. It's been a little frustrating but you can imagine the smile on my face when they were watching cartoon together and I found them sitting like this.....

Efficiency at it's best...or worst!

I'll preface this post with a little bit of of background. About 4 months ago Chris started a new job...a huge blessing with the two new additions. This blessing has also meant much longer hours (less travelling though) and hasn't allowed Chris very much time to buy cars for the dealership...needless to say it's suffered little bit. I had been to a couple of live auctions but wasn't sure how all the online stuff worked so over the past couple months I've done a couple of online bids and they've ended up being some of our best buys (Chris tells me I have good instinct). So with the two new additions I needed a van that met our needs better. Since our van had bucket seats in the middle the boys couldn't get through and would have to go through the front to get to the back. In addition to this problem Landon has to sit in the back and this isn't a problem if Jaden is there but if he's not I have to climb to the back to buckle him in his booster. I also have disliked only being able to haul 1 extra child...there are times I need to haul two and I just can't do it. So for the past two weeks I've been searching, doing proxy bids, losing, and not finding a van that would fit our needs....plus we needed it to fit our budget since we are paying cash (not dealership cash but personal cash). Yesterday afternoon I felt like I should check at 3pm and I found a van and realized the Live auction was happening in Florida that very moment...I WON! I felt like on my own search I learned a lot so now to today.....

This morning Chris said he saved a couple of cars for the SLC auction today and asked me to check it out...since I had much better luck with the live auction yesterday I knew that I needed to get on at 9am and I had many other tasks to complete so here is my multi-tasking efforts.

1. Dressing Eliza as I'm waiting for the cars to come up that I want to bid on.
2. My breakfast, slimfast.
3. The phone bill I prepared for Chris so he can get reimbursed at work.
4. My sticky notes of the cars & how much I'm going to bid.
5. The actual live auction...my computer honks at me when the cars on my watchlist come up.
6. Landons clothes that I need to put on him in between bids.
7. A content Alisha who is next to get dressed.

6. Landon pulls the cushions off at least 3 times a day...lets just say it drives me crazy! Anyways, this morning I decided that I needed to take the opportunity to vacuum out the couch since he reminds me about 3 times a day how gross it is.

7. A stripped down boy so I can get his clothes on quickly.

And I wrote this post all while I was waiting for my cars to come up!

Our 4th of July Activites

Our 4th of July Festivities began last Saturday Night at a party in a cul de sac in our neighborhood. I was so busy chatting that I took only 1 picture. I wish I would have been more diligent because my boys were all smiles & loved playing with their friends. Landon's face was covered in all the treats...cotton candy, ice cream, Popsicles, hot dogs, and popcorn. Landon did great at butting in lines and since his momma was busy chatting she wouldn't discover his sin until it was over:) Jaden was more patient and if the line was too long would go & play with his friends. At 10pm they did the big fireworks so me & the girls headed home while the boys stayed to watch.

On Monday we headed to the Rexburg parade. It was a beautiful day and the boys loved to catch the candy. Landon would quickly pop what he caught into his mouth.

After the Parade we headed to my parents for food, swimming, & mini-fireworks.

Not wanting to brave the crowds by the water....I get so nervous with little kids....we found an empty field, picked up some KFC, & watched the melaluca fireworks from the back of the van. The boys were loving it!
And of course the girls celebrated the same way the boys did but in a much more mellow manner. The little sweeties slept through most of the day. I'm so glad they are good enough that they don't stop us from going & having a little bit of fun!

I'm so glad we take a day each year to celebrate out independence. In the melaluca firework show they had excerpts from Past Presidents and WOW...it was some powerful stuff. I wish I could feel those chills with our politicians today. What a great country we live in & what a fun day to get to celebrate.

happiness is.....

playing and wrestling with little cousins. I have so many pictures to go through from our family reunion with my siblings that I haven't even began to blog or document it.

So...I'm just going to do a few at a time & try not to overwelm myself. We spent a night in Teton Village (right outside Jackson hole) and it's absolutely gorgeous up there. We love the hotel and all the kids did fabulous! I was very anxious when I knew the dates & how little the girls would be.

We did family pictures that morning (I'm trying to steal them off the photographers website with no success). I have a complaint about ALL our family pictures. We did family pictures over six years ago & I was pregnant with Jaden...then we did them again over 3 years ago and I was pregnant with Landon. in these I just gave birth to twins...REALLY! I gave my mom a hard time about it:):):)

After the pictures we let the kids run around and it made me smile. Here's some pictures of some of their fun with their cousins...I'm so grateful for their cousins!

2 months

Time travels so fast yet at the same time it seems like these little girls have been part of our family for a long time....we just love them!

Eli loves to eat and is much more active then Alisha. Alisha is almost always mellow & sweet and she's still a lot smaller then Eli. About two weeks ago Eli rolled over but I don't think it's a skill she's mastered but that she kicked her legs and the momentum and weight pulled her over.

They sometimes love tummy time & sometimes hate it. Alisha typically lays her head on the ground and is content. Eli grunts and tries pulling her head up so she can look around.

About a week ago I decided that I wanted to see how they did bathing together. Both girls typically would lay still in the bath water and relax. When put together they kick and flail...grab each others arms & legs. It's so fun to watch. They both also turn their heads so one eye is under water and look around with their eye open. It's a little creepy looking. I'm not sure why they react to bath time this way when they are together but I'd imagine it feels a little bit like the womb. I had Jaden watch one baby while I went to get the other one to put in the bath and his reaction to the kicking & flailing was "I could watch this all day." It really is adorable.

We love you little girls! I'm excited for all the adventures to come!