Nathan on Memorial Day

I just loved these pictures of Nathan! We had gone out to the Vogt farm on Memorial Day for a BBQ and Nathan found grandma's little watering can and spent the next 1/2 hour watering lots of her plants (along with lots of weeds, too - LOL) I've been wanting to make some 10x20 storyboards of each of the kids for a long time (to possibly jazz up the stairway) and decided to just do it! so... I'm thinking this might be the one for Nathan... not 100% sure. Because the photo below is a close second (not really - LOL) I think I'm beginning to not like this expression of his - heeee! but have decided to embrace it (because I know it won't be long before it goes by the wayside and I'll only have the photos to remind me of how he used to love "posing" for the camera when he was 2!) So like I said, I'm embracing it all -- the squinty clamped eyes, the chin upturned for a good nose shot and his vampire teeth exposed - with all of that, what's not to love??

Let's Par-tay!!

Double the cake, Double the Fun - Aubrie and Lexi are turning One! so I know their birthday was a bit ago - but we finally got to celebrate it and had a little family party. John's mom and dad and his aunt, uncle and cousin joined us :) The girls were a hit and Lexi demonstrated her walking skills for everyone (I've got it on video - I just need to upload the movie - so stay tuned). They didn't really go crazy over their cake... and after Aubrie used her hands for about 30 sec. she cried for a fork! I don't think they really even got to the cake part under all of that icing! But it was fun! We decided to have a Hawaiian/ Beach theme and I think the girls looked tooo adorable in their birthday outfits! I made the little T-shirts for them to wear (I think those are my favorite part - LOL)... so, I guess it's official.. we have entered into toddlerhood!

Aubrie walking with some help from grandma

after the cake, the girls headed out to the trampoline to jump (tooooo cute!)

and here's one of the girls playing with one of the new toys they got. Of course the "real fun" gifts were the carseats and booster chairs that they needed - LOL

To My Beautiful Wife on Mothers Day

Shandalyce is such a fantastic wife and mother. We are all so blessed to have her in our lives. This year for Mothers Day, I decided to interview the older boys about Shandy (an idea I stole from Sarah on Facebook). Hope you enjoy it.

1. What is something Mom always says to you?

August: Do the dishes

Seth: I'm a great boy and I don't know what I'd do with out you

Ben: She says she really wants to get a good picture of me

Me: Baby!!! (what she exclaims when I do something questionable)

2. What makes Mom happy?

A: When I do the dishes

S: If we help out and clean and don't fight

B: When we don't fight

M: Peace in the house and photography

3. What makes Mom sad?

A: When I don't do the dishes (I'm seeing a pattern here)

S: If we fight or make messes and if we're mean and all that stuff

B: When we fight

M: I think really when the boys continually fight

4. How does Mom make you laugh?

A: When she tickles me to do the dishes

S: I don't remember anytime that she has made me laugh
B: By tickling me
M: When she humors some of more idiotic moods or schemes and then we both laugh at how stupid I am

5. What was Mom like as a child?

A: Athletic
S: I don't know. Nice, helpful, and she could do a lot of stuff
B: A really nice girl and really cute and all that stuff. Always got B's. Had bad dreams.
M: She was a perfect angel. Seriously, the Carlson household was abnormal. No fighting. Good manners. Weird.

6. How old is Mom?

A: Thirty something
S: 33 or 34
B: 33
M: 29...uh, yeah, that's it...

7. How tall is Mom?

A: 5'3" about as tall as I am

S: Around 5 foot something
B: About 6' tall
M: 5'5 1/2"

8. What is Mom's favorite thing to do?

A: Spend time with everyone - family and friends
S: She like scrap booking and playing with her children
B: Take pictures
M: Spending time with family and friends, photography

9. What does Mom do when you're not around?

A: Does stuff on the computer
S: Helps out with the babies, computer digital design and editing
B: Cleans
M: All of the above. She is the glue that holds our whole family together. She does more in one day at home than I could do the whole week, if I was left home with the kids

10. If Mom becomes famous, what will it be for?

A: Photography stuff
S: Her editing and designing stuff
B: Cause she cleans and did pictures
M: I'm sure it will be with one of her many businesses. She is so creative and talented. Everything she touches turns to gold

11. What is Mom really good at?

A: Photography and Photoshop
S: Designing editing, being a mom, taking care of us
B: Taking pictures
M: Everything!

12. What is Mom not very good at?

A: Beating me in a race. I beat her to the car today
S: She's not the best at video games. She's pretty much good at everything else
B: Feeding the babies because they always spill
M: Being brave when the lights are out or when scary movies are on

13. What does Mom do for a job?

A: Photo stuff
S: Designs stuff and edits photos

B: Take pictures
M: Is the greatest SAHM and an extremely talented entrepreneur

14. What is Mom's favorite food?

A: I'm going to have to go with clam chowder
S: I'm not sure
B: That's easy: cake
M: Hmm...it's not really food but she loves ice

15. What makes you proud of Mom?

A: She's nice to me. Not all parents are like that
S: She's a great mom and loves me
B: She cleans a lot
M: How talented, kind, generous, and loving she is. Oh, also, how hot she is! Serious. She is like fine wine or cheese that just gets better with age. You look at some chicks our age and their best years are behind them. Not Shandy. She gets more fine every day.

16. If Mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

A: Sponge Bob
S: A mom in a cartoon
B: Supergirl. That's one, right?
M: Jessica Rabbit

17. What do you and Mom do together?

A: Play and do pretty much anything
S: Talk together. We like being together
B: Play with Toys
M: Share in being exhausted at the end of the day. Oh and...uh, never mind. This is a PG rated blog

18. How are you and Mom the same?

A: Both good with computers
S: Hazel eyes, good cooks, know how to do a lot of stuff
B: Both have the same nose
M: We both have pretty much the same temperament and compliment each other nicely

19. How are you and Mom different?

A: She does dishes, I don't...unless I'm forced to
S: She's better at designing a lot of stuff
B: We don't have the same eyes. Hers are hazel, mine are blue
M: Our taste in food. I like to try new dishes from new countries. She likes straight-up plain American food with ketchup on everything. Even steak.

20. How do you know Mom loves you?

A: She gives me hugs and says she does and I know she does
S: She says so and buys me stuff. She plays with me and helps me feel better if I'm sick or hurt
B: She cuddles with us and tucks us in
M: Everything she does tells me she loves me from the glances she gives me to the words she says to the things she does for me. She's my everything

21. How do you know Mom loves Dad?

A: Cause she makes out with you. Also she says she does and you guys don't get into fights
S: She does a lot of stuff for you. She lets you relax a lot and says she loves you a lot
B: Cause she married you
M: I agree with them all

22. What does Mom like most about Dad?

A: Your looks and love for her
S: Not sure
B: Kissing you
M: My sexy legs

23. Where is Mom's favorite place to go?

A: Anywhere with her friends and family

S: Going to her mom's house
B: Easy: the Pizza Store
M: I really think it's Nebraska right now. Not because of the state but because her family is there. She loves Idaho more but She misses her family

And there you have it. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how amazing and fabulous my beautiful wife is. Happy Mothers Day, babesy! I love you!

Johnny

a Sincere Thank You!

Life has been fun and busy for me lately. As you all know by now - I'm a mompatraneur through and through - LOL! For the last 6 years, I have been a business owner (always with scrapbooking, desigining or use of digital art, etc) and I am more than excited to add Photographer to that list! Yes, I am officially in business and I'm really excited to share Shandy Vogt Photography with you!
I also just wanted to thank you all (my blog readers) because it's really due to you that I decided to pursue this! I mean, I've always had a love for photography and loved learning how to take better pictures (just of my family) but last year when I was gently nudged into taking some photos of friends - it flipped a switch! I truly didn't think that I would like doing it and so agreed to - just for the fact that I could then prove to myself that I didn't enjoy it and just keep doing what I was doing. All of your kinds words, encouragement and support gave me the confidence to start on this journey. Over the Winter, I used that time to really dive into learning the ins and outs of photography. I read books, online tutorials and followed along with photography classes. Couple that with a totally sweet new camera and lens in my bag, and I feel I have grown leaps and bounds in my skills! (side note: THANKS to all of you who let me practice on you last year -- I really learned a lot from each of our sessions in what worked and what didn't.)
Anyway, I was just feeling gratitude for each of you and am amazed at the support I'm continually receiving. Heavenly Father has truly blessed me in life with great friends and family!

Also - feel free to check out my site and I'd love to hear your thoughts! I designed and customized it all myself (after reading LOADS of tutorials -LOL but it was fun and I love how it turned out!).

The girls are ONE!

nothing like a momentous occasion like the girls' birthday to bring me out of my blogging dry spell! I can't really believe it! Exactly one year ago right now at 12:20pm Aubrie entered the world and 4 minutes later, Lexi joined her! My labor was really quick. I was admitted to the hospital by 9:30am and less than 3 hours later they were here.
I remember John and I discussing how hard our life was about to become - sleepless nights, crying babies, 4 other children to take care of... how would we manage it all?? I guess this was a time where we truly were expecting the worst and were prepared for it - BRING IT ON! Well, it wasn't like all the horror stories I'd been told about twins - we had no sleepless nights, we had no crying babies - we have been so blessed with such great girls! Like I've said before - it just seems so natural for babies to come in pairs - and I sort of wish we had another set of multiples as they are unlike any other joy you can experience. Yes, there's been times (namely when they were both sick the past 2 months) where it was hard - but I still loved every minute of it!
Lexi is walking (well, about 10+ steps at a time) and it makes me sad that they are growing up. The absolute best part of my day is when I go into their room to get them up (whether it be first thing in the morning or after their naps) and to be greeted by TWO smiling faces who's eyes light up when you walk into the room - it's awesome!
I put a little collage together of them month by month and it's amazing how much they've grown and changed (and how much hair they grew :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY my sweet little twincesses - my precious gift from Heaven!

Closing Up...

well... I guess I've made it official -- I'm going to be closing my Digital Scrapping Site --
I sort of have mixed emotions...
I mean I haven't even put anything new in the store since before the girls were born! But I guess, me holding onto it has made me feel like I still had a title or something (dumb, I know... but when people would ask if I was just a SAHM -- I could also say that I had my own business (well, I guess I still do - with Photoflattery and photography... hmm.. ok, so now I'm not feeling as bad - LOL) but anyway - it was time to renew my domain name and I guess that gave the added push I needed to make the decision and go with it --
hey, if any of you are digi scrappers - I've got a freebie template pack up on my designer blog (link is over to the right with my other links...)
I really loved being a designer and would literally dream of my next design 24 hours a day! I was obsessed (so in that regards, I'm kind of glad to be closing the door - HEEE!) but it also taught me loads of photoshop skills and gave me confidence to pursue the next dream!

March Update...

Well, it has been a VERY rough couple of weeks. The Rotavirus hit us and I have been dealing with throw up and diarhea for 13 straight days! no exageration! Aubrie, Lexi and Nathan were sick for almost 2 full weeks! - but I am soooo happy to report that I *think* it has ran its course and it has decided to leave the Vogt house! HOORAY! The rest of us got it as well - but were only down for 1-2 days. let me tell you how (NOT) fun having a family of 8 all sick at the same time is! it was rough - I can't even put into words how awful it was - LOL so enough about that (but on a final note: we went through 2.5 JUMBO packages of diapers for the girls and can I just say that I am so glad that Nathan got potty trained last month! oh, and we also did take Lex in to the ER at one point to get rehydrated... and both girls and Nathan lost weight (which they didn't really have to begin with to loose... oh well...) I'm just thankful, they are acting like themselves. It is such a blessing to see them get down and play with each other (no joke - for the past 2 weeks, if Lexi was awake - she would just lay on my chest.. she maybe got down once or twice during those 13 days -- it was sad :( Sooo... since it was so wonderful to see them smiling and cralwing around I hurry and busted out the camera to get commemorate - LOL
(that middle pic of Aubrie is my favorite -- it makes me giggle everytime I see it! HEEE!)

During all of the sickness, life still went on for the rest of us thought... Seth had to give a HUGE oral/power point presentation (that he'd been working on for about 7 weeks) on George Rogers Clark... here he is the morning he was to present in front of the judges. He did really well and was happy with his performance - he had the whole report memorized and gave it in a 1st person narrative - which everyone loved :) Doesn't he look adorable!?

It was also the Blue and Gold Banquet... For the Father/Son Cake - John and Seth decided on doing a hamburger cake... we all think it turned out fun! I did not help whatsoever in the building of this -- they were so proud of themselves!

He also got the prize of "Most Edible" for his cake...

It was also Ben's 7th Birthday this week! He took in cupcakes to his class at school and he got Sonic for dinner that night. We had his friend party yesterday (Saturday). We took them all to Carl's Jr and they had Kids Meals and played in the playland (thought this would be MUCH easier to let them run around and be wild at the restraunt vs. entertaining them at our house! -- turned out to be a wise decision - LOL
then afterwards, we came home and had cake/ice cream and openedgifts. oh, they also played some video games on the Wii. Here's the pic of the cake we had made for him - He thought it turned out pretty cool!
He got the Hulk Abomination Blaster from grandma and grandpa... as you can see, it's quite the gun! It splits off and you can have 2 seperate guns as well -- so all of the boys (and John!) have been having a blast playing with it!

So now that brings us up to Spring Break (and Track Break for Seth and Ben...) I also need to get caught up on all of your blogs - I seriously haven't had the time the past few weeks and have missed reading about everyone! Have a great Spring Break :)

I Won!

One of my favorite (daily) sites to visit is Twinstuff.com -- I was recommended the site by several gals that followed my designing blog (back in the day...) and joined up when I was still expecting the girls. It has been an invaluable place of knowledge, support and friendship throughout this first year. Anywho... they had a contest to design their new logo and guess what?! It was just announced today that I won! YIPPEE!!! I'm so excited that they chose my design! I couldn't help but take a screen shot of the forums once they switched out the logos....

They had a cash prize and then also gifted me a years membership (it's a free site but has some additaional perks for paying members) so I was pretty excited. The new look has been well received by everyone so that makes me feel even better! Anyway, just thought I'd share my news :)

oh, and if you were curious as to what the original logo was.... here's a screen shot of that (they haven't switched out every page yet so this was still up for a visual)...

Doesn't the new one make everything look so much fresher and hip?? LOL (yes, I'm partial...)

Design Star

so do you like this color scheme?? If so, then you are in luck - big time!

Scrap Matters is having a "Design Star" contest (comparible to American Idol -- and the winner of the contest will then be a full time designer for Scrap Matters). Yours Truly has been asked to be one of the judges so have been going through all of the submissions and there are 132 of them! Where's the good news for you? Well, each of the 132 contestants have created a mini kit using this color combo and they are available for FREE to whoever would like them. You just have to be a registered user at Scrap Matters. The owner of the store is an awesome lady and the Design Team Coordinator (Brittney) was one of my Creative Team members (when I was actively designing for the scrapping business).

Anyway, I'm just taking a quick break from judging (and there is some awesome talent there!) and thought I'd pass along all of the free kits available right now -- and watch out for the next round (there'll be more free kits!) So go clear out some free space on your hard drive and get to downloading! :)

Moppet Togs

Alright, so some of you may already be familiar with this consignment shop but thought I'd give you all a heads up about their big semi-annual sale (once in spring and once in fall)... anyway, the girls have HOARDS of clothes and shoes (and I was thinking of either trading them in at Other Mothers or trying Craiglist) to get some more ca$h and saw that this company is currently taking consignors for it's sale that is mid-March (March 19-21) but you have to register to be a consignor by next week. You get 70-80% of the sale price of your items (which you set) and MT gets the other portion... I've never sold with them but think I'll try it out and thought I'd pass it along to any others out there that might want to take advantage of it too :) **if you do decide to be a consignor - I'd love it if you put me as a referral - so I can keep more of my sales percentage :) **

Here's the link to their site that gives all the info about consigning and the sale dates...
even if you don't have anything to sell - it sounds like it's a place to get some nice kids clothes/toys without paying retail!

anyone have any experience with this company?? I'd love to hear about it if you do...

9 months and counting...

As I wrote the title for this post, I had visions of comment after comment asking if that was a "sneaky" way of us having some news to share -- so let me put all speculating rumors aside and declare that NO... I am not pregnant - LOL

It does make reference to my little girlies -- I finally got them in for their 9 month appointment yesterday (even though they'll be 10 months next week.. oh well..)

All is going well with the both of them. Here are the stats:

Aubrie: 17lb 15oz and 29.5 inches
Lexi: 17lb 2oz and 29.5 inches

so this is the closest they've been (in regards to weight) to each other... Aubrie is usually at least 1-1.5 pounds heavier but it looks like ol' Lex is catching up!

Still just the best little babies one could ever hope or wish for! They both got their top 2 teeth on the same day (so a total of 4 teeth busted though about a week and a half ago!) and they have found that they really REALLY like graham crackers :) They've been interacting more with each other and "playing" together... it's so fun to watch!

As I was looking through their photos (trying to get organized to make a 1 year montage of them) I realized that most of the photos I had of them were "posed" so I've really tried to make a conscious effort to catch some snapshots of everyday life (because although I love the cute posed photos, I want to remember these small moments that pass too quickly!) They both have learned to climb the stairs (have a cute pic of this - gotta go find it tho -- ) and they love to get into the dishwasher - yikes! Regardless, they are the absolute funnest babies ever! Enjoy some "everyday fun" experienced over here on any given day...

my "bad boy" husband

So something quite interesting was brought to my attention this past week... that I'm married to a "bad boy"! and with those words being in quotations -- you know it's serious! We're talking mullet wearing, guitar playing, and "combs in the back pocket" cool!

So let the story begin....

John grew up in a very small town in Alaska and since being on facebook he has been able to reconnect with most of the kids he grew up with. One of these friends wrote me an email directing me to her own blog post that she made a while back and thought I'd find it funny (and I did!). After reading it I asked if it would be ok to share bits of what she wrote along with the photos and she was more than happy to oblige :)

(preface: the original blog post was about how they didn't have any stores in Valdez to buy the "big" earrings that were all the rage in the 80's and so she made her own by cutting out pictures of earrings from catalogs and glueing them onto cardboard -- (quite creative, I must say! LOL)... below is taken from her blog...)

"...I had a whole jewelry box full of these cardboard babies, but I don’t remember wearing them. Except around my bedroom. Like some middle school fantasy dress-up diva.... I did have a pair that I thought were scandalous. And I thought it would be really "Suggestive" if I ever wore them (they said "Soft Shoulder" and were road sign ones), so I just dreamed about wearing them and having a boy ask me if my shoulders were really soft. Oooh, the excitement of that question was almost too much for my 7th grade mind. And the boys I dreamed about were Troy Fenner, Matt Kiser and John Vogt. They were the boys with the coolest mullets and the combs in their back pockets. Now that my daughter is in Middle School I watch her like a hawk. Mostly, to see if she's as weird as I was and also to see if she likes the "Bad Boys" like I did. I am so afraid, she does share my DNA, you know!! These photos were taken in 1988, when I was in 8th grade. They are of Matt Kiser, Lance Komkoff and John Vogt."

John is on the far right in both photos... and were from their 8th grade yearbook.

as I was telling this story to my friend, she matter of fact stated... "well, that's what attracted you to John in the first place - that he was a "bad boy" with his long hair and earring (and that he wasn't a member of the LDS church)."

YIKES! she was right! I guess I'll be much like this gal when the twins are in middle school to see if they too, are drawn to the bad boys -- let's hope not because I don't think their dad will stand for it! LOL

Happy Valentines Day

hope you all have a fun time celebrating with your loves :)

There's several of us sick over here so not sure how much celebrations will be occuring... :(

a Valentines Box?

hmmm... now what could that contraption be that Seth is posing with... Would you beleive his Valentines Day "box"....
His class was having a contest and would be judged in 3 areas...(1) funniest (2) most "valentine-ish" <-- is that even a word?? oh well... and (3) Teacher's Favorite he came home with grand plans (and design) of a man bending over and you put the valentine in the back of his head and then he "threw it up" out of his mouth into a bowl... yeah, I had to shoot that one down... but I told him that dad might know how to construct it... he didn't. So then they decided on a Battering Ram (ok.. not even sure that's how it's spelled...) so they went to work on it.. the posts weren't made big enough so in the end it didn't "ram"... Seth was so sad. So on the morning of the party, he was going to leave empty handed... when I suggested that it sort of looked like a Mechanical Bull.. and why not tweak it to be such! He was thrilled... so we hurried and put the final touches on it and his Mechanical bull Valentines Box was ready! He ended up taking 2nd in 2 of the categories - he would have like first but said everyone thought his was pretty cool....

Also - out of all my boys - he is the only one who really enjoys reading... We've been going to the library lately and a few weeks ago he brought me his "pile" of books.. I tried to tell him that 10 was too many for us to keep track of and he should just narrow it down to 3-4. He insisted that he could read them all before our next trip.. so I conceded. Well, turns out he thought he only had them for a week (like at school) and so read ALL of them in a week!
crazy boy.. I wonder how many nights he stayed up reading these to prove me wrong - LOL

How it all started....

16 years ago today was the beginning of "John and Shandy"....
It was a Wednesday night and I had just gotten back from Young Women's (I was 17) and I was writing in my journal before bed. It was just a little after 9 and the phone rang. I answered it and the voice asked for Shandy. I answered "This is she..." and then the voice on the other end mysteriously changed to be one with a Mexican accent and he proceeded to say that his posse and him were going to be riding into town in his low rider and wanted to know if I would go along on a date. I then had to ask who it was - LOL.. he said it was "John... from McDonalds" (we had worked together at McD's but I had been in another relationship at the time and he got wind that we had broken up and so jumped at the chance to call me :)
I accepted his invitation and on Friday night he picked me up in his Maroon Ford Tempo. After we got into his car he started fiddling with his ear and I was like "what are you doing?" and he said "oh, putting in my earring... I didn't think it'd go over too well with your dad." (now my boys will never be allowed to wear an earring but.... my Johnny sure looked H.O.T. wearing a little gold hoop!!!) So that was the beginning of US... 2 days later he stuck a homemade valentines in my mailbox and has been such the romantic ever since!

Here were some old pics of us from some of the dances he took me to back in high school (I was a senior and he was a freshman at BSU)...

please excuse all of the dust! I didn't feel like redoing them... but enjoy a blast from the past :)

Resident Pervs and Long Hair

So Shandy and I went to an early Valentine's Day party on Friday night. They did a quiz on how well you know your spouse and we ended up tying with two other couples for first and after a gruelling match of paper, rock, scissors we won the grand prize. First of all, let me say, the paper, rock scissors game was quite impressive. I was up against a dude named Keith and he and I threw the same object like probably 1o times in a row before I changed my strategy and beat his rock with my paper. It was odd. Anyhoo, one of the items in our gift bag was red velvet covered handcuffs which was appropriate since we both answered that if our love life (meaning whoopee - their words, not mine) were a holiday it would be Halloween - full of tricks and treats. So, I guess it's official, we are now the resident pervs of the ward.

Moving on...

While in Nebraska over Christmas, Shandy and I went to see Twilight again. I was admiring how nice Edwards hair was and thinking I'd like to climb up into it and take a nap. I mean the dude has awesome hair and I say that in a totally non-gay way.

I then started to lament my own male pattern baldness and how I would never be able to have a thick head of hair again. Don't get me wrong, I like shaving my head. I think it works for me. With the military for the last 12 years, I've had to keep my hair short. At first I wore a high and tight and then as the bald spot got bigger, I just started hitting it with the bic. It wasn't always like that, though. From 88-91, I rocked the mullet. Business up front, party in the back. My mull was fierce. When Shandy and I first started dating, my hair hung down to my jaw line.

I then started to think about the boys. I have been giving them high and tights for years now.

In fact in the above pic, they were due for a haircut. I started to realize that I was cheating them out of the opportunity to have bushy, unruly hair. Just because I have to keep my hair short doesn't mean they have to. I had a talk with them the next day and told them that basically, I wouldn't cut their hair again unless they wanted me to. I told them they could grow it out and do whatever they would like with a few stipulations:

1. They still needed to look respectful. The hair can grow out but I don't want them to look like girls

2. They would have to take care of it and keep it clean and not look like a bunch of grease balls

So far they are all enjoying the new follicle freedom. August and Seth are letting their tops grow out but have both requested a little trim around the ears. Ben has yet to request anything. We'll see how it turns out.

we did it...

alright, John and I give in... after multiple requests, we have joined the ranks of fellow facebookers... It's quite confusing (for all of the 5 min. I've been on it...) so if any of you guys have any tips on navigating... please share! Also, I couldn't help but post this vidoe that I found on my friend (Amber's) blog...

Inspiration....

I don't how many of you guys are followers of Meslissa's blog 320 Sycamore but I HIGHY suggest running over there right now and reading todays post!
She has a guest "speaker" - Susan (who was my RS Pres. when I lived in Nampa) and she is such a positive, uplifting person and she has some wise words about how to have "Special Time" with your children.
John and I have done something similiar (but lacking a few of the key steps to the formula she has laid out) ever since the boys were super little and we've always just called it "Mommy/Daddy Time"... but I'm eager to implement this Special Time to its fullest potential!

Also while you're there - spend some time looking at her past posts... I have gotten soooo many ideas and heads up on deals from things she has posted :) she is also the master at decorating on a budget and finding things to "transform" at the dollar store! She really is one talented gal :)

Superbowl and a newborn :)

uhhhh.... can you tell which team we were rootin' for?! John has been a giant Steelers fan since he was 4. seriously... and we were excited that that they made it to the superbowl this year! Those last few minutes of the game made john's blood pressure raise quite a bit but we were thrilled with the ending!

We had some friends over and enjoyed good food, good friends and a good football game! There were 10 kids here (actually that number isn't hard to get to considering we have 6 of our own - LOL) but everyone enjoyed themselves....


Switching gears here.... I haven't done any photography since the weather turned (since I don't have any studio lights and am definitley more of a natural light gal) but a friend (who just had her little boy last week!) asked if I'd take some photos of him... here are just a couple of what we got today using the light coming in from the windows :)

Behind the Scenes

another milestone day... the girls have been with us exactly 9 months today :)
I don't know if you guys are like me - but at every "age marker" I think back and say "oh, exactly at this time I was being wheeled into the OR.... or at this exact time we were recovering in the room with our new babies" etc... that correspond with the appropriate times - and this day was no different :) It's been an aboslutle wonderful 9 months! They got off on their sleep schedules this morning (so they took opposite naps - ugh... oh well...) so when I was taking pics, Lexi was asleep (and then when she woke up, Aubrie was not a happy gal... so I didn't get any of them together today -- hmph. and yes, that makes me a little sad.....) But here is a super cute one of my 9 month old Aubs.... I also wanted to take just a moment and share a little "behind the scenes" of taking pictures of the girls. I get asked all the time how I get photos of both of them looking good (a lot of these comments come from moms of other twins who know how difficult this is!) For instance, this picture below -- (I think) it's really cute of both the girls and I personally love it! And this is what I show people - and they assume I've take 1-2 photos and picked the best one and voila...

that is so not the case - LOL.... so for some evidence I put together this little visual of what the majority of the photos look like when I download them... My favorite one is the bottom left where they're both going in opposite directions (and this is very common!) - especially now that they are both mobile - LOL. The truth of of it is -- whenever I decide to take the girls photos (not just the everyday snapshots - but the ones of them together just looking cute ;) - it usually takes a (minimum) of 20 mins and about 100 shots and I end up with about 8-10 that I like/keep. It would REALLY be helpful to have 2 additional people to help (and sometimes I bribe the older boys to help) so that each baby has someone to place her while I get the camera ready (vs. me trying to get both of them positioned, then get the camera ready - and by that time... one has inevitably moved! heheheh) oh, well, when I'm done I'm out of breath and worn out from all the work... but it's worth it to me to have some fun memories of the girls in these early months :)

and then 2 of the ones that I like :)

Ta-Daaaa

<--- this is such a Nathan stance lately. Whenever he does anything (whether it be good or bad) he is more than enthusiastic when he comes to show it off. For instance, the other week, he got into the pantry and dumped oatmeal ALL over the floor and then danced around in it so it was literally from wall to wall... he then came and got me to show me. When we walked into the pantry, he immediately put both hands outstretched towards (the mess) and proceeded to say "Ta-Daaa!". When I didn't share in his glee, and told him that this was a naughty thing to do, he walked around to the other side of the mess and again said "Ta-daaaa!"... this went on 3 different times until I recognized his messy achievement. He has done "Ta-daaa's" for writing on the counter, writing on the wall, pulling all of the paper cups out and stepping on them, turning on the TV when he's not supposed to, finding a lost item, completeing a new look to Mr. Potato Head, driving a remote control car... well, you get the idea... Even though most of the time, it's to showcase something naughty, it's seriously the cutest thing ever! and I hope it continues on for a bit more....

Also, he's growing up! Granted he's just 2 years and 4 months old but he went through a right of passage this week. Yep, that's right. He had his first playdate! My neighbor has a little girl just a little bit younger than Nathan and she called up on Monday to see if he could come over and play. After confirming that she really indeed want to voluntarily take him into her home to play, we got him bundled up and trekked the one house over. He wasn't quite sure what to think as I dropped him and left but upon his return, Jackie said that the 2 of them did fairly well together :) I snapped this picture as they dropped him off (although it was pretty cold and I think the 2 of them had had enough...) but it's cute nonetheless! He came in and (literally) fell onto the couch and slept for the next 3 hours!

Memories of January 25

Happy Birthday to my Grandpa! Today he would have been 107! Here's a picture from back in 1984 where my family is with he and my grandma (yes, I'm the one with the striped skirt :) He died when I was 13 and since my dad was in the military we didn't get to see them all that often (we'd come out here to Idaho - they lived in Burley) each summer for a visit....

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Also on this day in 1987, I was living in New Jersey and we had just gotten a lot of snow! Behind our house was a HUGE hill - that was affectionally known as the "40 footer" - but who knows how big it really was - LOL.. anyway, it was right before dinner and I wanted to go sledding down the hill a few times before eating... most of the other kids from the neighborhood had all gone in (excpet myself and one other kid). I grabbed one of those saucer sleds and started down. Now, at the bottom of the hilld there were 2 sheds and the object was to go in between the sheds for a free and clear ride. Sometimes you'd get off course and hit the shed (which I had done before)... well, on this particular ride down I could see that I was off course and heading straight for the shed on the left. I stuck out my feet for impact and C.R.U.N.C.H.! I knew immediately that I had done something to my foot. I was in sooooo much pain! I yelled for the other kid to go get my mom and (well, to make a long story short...) I broke the bridge of my foot and dislocated ALL of my toes! The swelling was too much (they had to reset my foot before putting it in a cast) but they couldn't do that until the swelling went down. So for almost 2 weeks I stayed home playing monopoly and other games with my mom :) After the 2 weeks, the swelling still wasn't were they'd like it to be but they were worried that my foot would heal in the wrong position so went ahead and reset it - and that HURT sooooo bad! they hung my foot up by a contraption that looked like a Chinese Finger Trap (but for toes!) and then proceeded to physically put my toes back in the correct sockets - OUCH!!! So anyway, that's me reminiscing about January 25....

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John had drill this weekend so the kids and I were solo at church - not so much fun... but several of the ladies at church jumped right in and helped me out - BIG TIME!! It was August

s first time to pass the Sacrament (he was pretty excited :) - so I didn't have his help and both girls were beginning to fuss and Nathan wasn't being very cooperative! But then a gal 2 rows behind me took Lex for the remainder of Sacrament (and even got her to take a nap!) and then during Sunday School :) And during RS I had several ladies help!! thank you soooo much! I am so thankful for the kindness of my friends to always help me out (and do it willingly and with a smile on their face - LOL).... after church the girls and I took a nap and when they woke up they were just too cute not to take some more pictures of them! (Plus, I had to show daddy what his little girls looked like today at church - since he couldn't be there ;)

Eat Your Heart Out, Lynette

John, here with today's post....
Saturday, Vinnie Perretta was at the Blue and Orange Store to sign autographs. August, Seth and I headed out and got in line about 45 mintes early. By the time Vinnie showed up, the line was probably about 300 deep. We got some posters signed and the boys thanked Vinnie for everything. Vinnie has been a class act the whole way and really embodies what it means to be a Bronco. He has always been very gracious and accomodating to fans. At the end of every game, many of the players will file past the South End Zone and shake hands with and high-five the fans. Over the past few years, Vinnie has been one of the faithful that does this each game. He has also given each boy one of his wrist bands after the game. The boys were grateful for that and we will be sorry to see him go. We wish him luck with his future endeavors. As to the title of the post...Shandy's good friend Lynette has had quite the Vinny P crush for quite a while. I'm guessing she'll be kicking herself for not making it.

Girlie Update...

a little girlie devotion time here on the ol' blog...

Next week the girls will officially turn 9 months! (and I'm sure I'll do another post - LOL) but for now, they are still just 8.5 months old (that's sound better :) Anyway, I now have two mobile girls! Aubrie started crawling up on all 4's last week. She thinks she's big stuff now (as do we!) Lexi is into everything! She's at the human vaccuum stage and finds all sorts of things on the floor! Plus the other day we couldn't find her and she was half way UP the stairs!!! SCARY!

I'm not sure on their exact stats of height and weight (will get those at their 9 month appointments). When we were at my moms for the holidays they slept in the same room (we've had them seperated since they were 8 weeks old) but the ended up doing fairly well together so once we got home, we moved Lexi back into the nursery with Aubrie... overall it's been pretty good! :) During naps I still seperate them (just so I can get the most out of nap times!) and our routine is one I can't complain about....
They are still so much fun and I was excited that yesterday the sun peeked out (just a bit) so I could get some photos of them (it had been a while for them -- and it wasn't as easy with them both wanting to crawl off the bed!) oh well... here were a few of my favorites from yesterday :)

Did you hear??...

That apparently, if I were an animal - I'd be a ... BOBCAT! Now how do I know this? It's quite simple really, the cashier at the dollar store informed me of this on Saturday evening.
It was quite the conversation - I had gone to the dollar store to pick up some balloons for August's birthday party and upon checking out the cashier (who was a boy I'm guessing to be around 18-19 years old) told me that if he could he would live in the water and that if he were an animal, he'd be an Otter... to which I kindly replied "oh, that's sounds cool"... and then he asked what type of animal I was... I had no answer so then he began to question my likes and dislikes and what temperment I had and if I could get angry sometimes, etc, etc.. (yes, I swear this is all true!) and as my last item was checked and put into the bag he had come up with my perfect animal counterpart... the bobcat! Just thought you'd all like to know who you're really dealing with - LOL

So after I left there, I got home and we got ready for the extra boys that would be arriving soon for pizza, junk food, cake, ice cream and things of that nature... John was brave enough to take them all to the movies after they were overloaded on sugar and had been rocking out to Rockband! We surprised August and had a cake specially ordered for him. We found the basis of the Star Wars graphic online and then I tweaked it a bit and customized it to be for August and then had Pastry Perfection screenprint it on the cake (and let me tell you... it was DELISH! it was chocolate with rasperry filling - YUM!!) When we pulled out the cake August sure thought it was the coolest cake he'd seen!

and then I'm pretty excited that we are on the ball this year (truthfully, we do our taxes in January each year) but I'm happy to report that our taxes are done, sent and we're eagerly awaiting our moolah!

August receives the Priesthood

Well today August was ordained a Deacon in the Aaronic priesthood. How is that even possible? It really does seem like yesterday that he was brand new and we were prancing him throughout the night to keep him from crying (yikes!)
He's been excited for a long time for this day! (and this past week he kept telling me how he was nervous for the interview with the Bishop this morning - LOL)
Our ward now meets at 8:30am and the Bishop wanted to meet with August before church so he could be presented in Sacrament meeting -- Nathan has been pretty sick (again!) so the 3 little ones and I stayed home...BUT JOhn ran Seth home after church and stayed with nathan and I took the girls and we went back to the church to witness John give August the priesthood. It was really wonderful and August said that he feels really excited and happy about being a Deacon. There's a Temple trip this Saturday that he will get to attend (and John will be going as well...) We're all pretty thrilled about this major milestone that has happened to our little guy!

First Playtime Together

I've heard other twin moms talk about how it's so sweet to see their little ones play together and today I witnessed it! Aren't they too young for this?!! seems like my little ladies are growing up. Nathan and I had been playing catch with this big bouncy ball and when we were done, Lexi crawled over to it, and (I'm not kidding on this next part) she actually rolled it to Aubrie! Now, I know that it was most likely a fluke that it actually made it's way to Aubs but then they took turns just batting at it until it would eventually make its way back and forth between them -- isn't that the cutest! It was so cute it brought me out of my scrapping dry spell and I actually did a layout (gasp!)... and then just a cute one of them on the couch together - moreso because I just loved their little outfits today! I found this gal on eBay that makes the babylegs (leg warmers) and

I just can't get enough of them! Maybe I should learn how to make them myself to save me some moolah....

and then I just HAD to post this video too... I was just over at Jamie's blog and she had a link to it and it is hilarious -- and oh, so true!!! Thanks Jamie for making me laugh this evening :) and the little ol' lady that is in it is soooo cute! she just makes the video!

2 weeks in Nebraska

Just a warning: this may possibly be the longest blogger post in history!

Monday, Dec. 22 we headed to the airport to fly to my parents home in Nebraksa for the holiday! I have been so excited to go but the week prior to leaving was when we were all struck with the sickies so didn't get to pack until the night before... anyway, we get there and of course we are the first ones on the plane for pre-boarding. Now, I had gone to the dollar store and made little kits for each of the kids to help entertain the on the flight (and of course they were all well equiped with FOOD!) anyway, we had the very last row on the plane all the way across and truthfully, it wasn't all that bad - yes, both girls cried and refused to go to sleep and Nathan kept kicking the seat in front of us and a bottle leaked out of the bag onto a passenger but nothing we couldn't handle. Basically John and I both walked with the girls around the back trying to stay out of everyone's way.... then we get to Minneapolis and switch planes.. everything goes well and as soon as we get to the gate they are boarding.. sadly, no pre-boarding for this flight so it was more of a struggle to get all situated but we do and then... we sit on the runway for 45 min! not fun but oh well... same as the first flight but kept the girls quiet with lollipops, graham crackers and strawberry puffs (yes, and prior to this... they had only ever eaten baby food! - but whatever worked!) Also, during this flight 3 stewardess' came back and said "we heard there was a family of 8 on board and we just had to come look at it!" yeah, I'm sure we were quite the sight! But it didn't matter... just 6 hours after leaving Boise we landed in Omaha where my parents met us! It was the first time grandpa got to meet the little girls and it was so fun introducing them to him!

My parent's house is about 3 hours from Omaha so we decided to drive the 1 hour to Lincoln where my brother and his family live (actually all of my sibling live in Lincoln) and we stayed the night with them. Tuesday was the BSU Bowl game and so we had to get on the road so john could be all set up for the game - and of course everyone had to sport their BSU gear... On the way we stopped at another brothers house and visited for a bit. So we get to their house around 4pm and John gets all situated for the game... Meanwhile, I had all of our Christmas gifts sent to their house (did 99% of our shopping online and just had them shipped directly there...) so I had an insane amount of wrapping to do! But it all got done...
Wedensday was Christmas Eve... My oldest brother and his family came in that morning and we spent most of the day cooking the big Christmas dinner. My mom, SIL and I did run out during the late morning and picked up a few last minute Christas gifts which was fun! Then we had the big Turkey/Ham dinner and the most amazing rolls that my SIL makes from scratch! wowzers!
That evening we had a FHE where we read about the birth of Christ from the scriptures and then followed by a talent show. To close down the FHE my mom had all the grandkids gather around and told the story and meaning of christmas...
Then Grandma gave each of the grandkids a gift to open (new pj's!!) so here they are sporting their new duds (Nathan and the girls were already down for the night...)

After all the kids were in bed, we finished up the wrapping and setting up... We were actually all in bed at a decent time with instructions that we woudn't be getting up any earlier than 6am... All the grandkids slept down in the basement and then in the morning we all got up together... Here's just a modpodge of pics from the morning...

After all of gifts were opened, we had a big Christmas bruch with pancakes, waffles, cheesy eggs, etc... around 1pm the rest of the families all showed up so we had a full house! It was soooo fun! we opened up each others gifts and just had a really fun time together. Sadly my oldest bro and family had to leave that evening (they were heading out to TX to visit her side of the family....) but before they left, we herded everyone into the living room for an attempt at a family photo! Most of us hadn't even combed our hair for the day and several of the kids were still in their pj's! I don't know why we didn't take 5 min. to change and at least comb/wash faces! oh, well.. I think we were trying to get one before they left that we didn't really care how we looked! Several hours later of editing and many head swaps, removing the background, editing all graphics off of Tshirts, changing colors of clothing, etc, etc... (oh, and Nathan was asleep during it so I had to add him in later as well...) anyway, this is the final result... and for what we had to work with we're all excited about it! LOL...

I'm not sure if I like it in color or BW better to print up... what do you think?

ok.. moving right along - Here's a picture of the girls with their Great Grandma (who is also a twin) and is just so thrilled that I have twin girls! These are the cute little outfits that she gave them for Christmas...

During the second week we were there, my mom made cookies with the boys - they were in heaven! this is something that I should really do more with them... she went all out and brought out all of the cookie cutters, icing, and toppings! and yes, they were little piglets and had eaten them all within 24 hours!

We were able to attend church with them while we were there and here are the little dresses that my mom bought special for girls - and of course they had to sport their hats made by Janiece and bracelets by Jenny!

She also got them these beautiful green dresses and so we had to dress them up in those as well for some pics... LOL On December 28, we celebrated our 14 year anniversary! My little brother and his wife have the same anniversary (they celebrated their 6th) and so we went out to breakfast together while grandma babysat all of the kids :) The next day we did some more celebrating and went out to dinner with my parents and then they went home to be with the kids and John and I went out shopping and then to see Twilight (again!)....

My little sister and her husband wanted me to take some pics of them while we were together so we ventured out one afternoon... surprisingly it was like 50 degrees! Here's a few that I took...

and here are some inside by the Christmas tree.. I really wanted to get some really pretty shots of the glowing tree with my boys in it but they'd have to stay still for like 5 seconds for the correct shutter speed that I knew it wouldn't turn out.. so I took theirs....
Now we're up to New Years Day.... which also happens to be August's 12th birthday! He was born just 13 min. before the new year back in 1996.... I can't believe my little guy is 12 and now in YM's and will be getting the priesthood! We had one of his favorite dinners which is Chicken and Dumplings and had cake and ice cream...

then we let the 3 older boys stay up to ring in the new year.... we ate LOTS AND LOTS (and then some more!) but it was fun! Here we all are in the first picture of 2009!

Grandma Vogt got the little girls these cute outfits with the funnest hats!! I love them! so couldn't resist putting in a pic of them dressed up with thier first little baby dolls that my mom gave them (in fact, they're little twin dolls :)

We were scheduled to fly out on Sat (Jan 3) but bad weather came in with ice and snow and many flights were majorly delayed if not cancelled all together! Of course ours was one that was affected and so they couldn't get us out until Sun. night.... so we all got together in Lincoln for one last hoorah! My sisters husband is very musical and has LOTS of musical instruments so all of the guys went down for a little jam session! They actually turned out to be fairly good and put on a concert for everyone!

My oldest brother is on the drums, BIL on the guitar, younger brother singing and then my hot Johnny on the bass!!

and here are the 2 songs that they peformed to us... the first is a Weezer song (my personal favorite of the 2) and the second is Zombie by the Cranberries.... the best part is that this is the first time my brother has ever played the drums!

so then we get on the plane Sunday evening at 7pm and since we were rescheduled, our seats were literally ALL over the plane with everyone sitting by themself.. yeah, that wasn't going to work... so they got us all sitting together and that flight goes fairly smooth.... then the next flight they couldn't get us all together so we were seperated :( Again, we sit on the runway for an hour!!! by this time it's 10:30pm and the 3 little ones have had it... so we finally take off and Aubrie (the one I have) starts screaming LOUDLY for like 20 min (where people behind me were yelling "Shhhhh!"... oh well... finally she falls asleep but Nathan (who was also by me) doesn't fall asleep until midnight! anyway, we finally land and get home about 4 hours before the boys are to wake up to get to school - so we let the sleep in a bit and John took them on his way to work....

So that was our trip in a nutshell... yes, the traveling wasn't the funnest but TOTALLY worth it (in my mind... John might have a different answer for you! LOL)

oh, also while we were there my little Lexi hit some other milestones... she learned out to crawl up the stairs (so she could escape form the sunken living room we had them *contained* in) and she started pulling herself up onto things to a standing position (and even was standing in her little crib when we went in to get her up after a nap!) I'm afraid she's going to be walking and little Aubrie still won't be crawling! LOL

so here we are... back and home and loving the comforts of being in our own house!

Christmas 2008

a belated Merry Christmas!! Just a quick post... we ventured out to my parents in Nebraska for Christmas this year (we will get to the plane rides in another post.. but needless to say - we shant be doing any more traveling for at least another 4 years!) My older brother and his family stayed Christmas Eve with us as well so there were a total of 16 people that needed to have spots for christmas in the living room! Here is a picture on Christmas Eve that I took.... it all worked out and it was really great being all together! On christmas day both my younger brother and his family and my little sister and her husband joined us so it was quite the full house! We sang songs and had a talent show which inevitably resulted in a RockBand concert! Us girls decided to form our own girlband and it was quite the sight for the boys to see their grandma rocking out on the guitar! (and yes... we sacrificed packing clothing so we could fit the whole set up of Rockband into our suitcase!!!) -- oh and don't mind all of the background paraphenalia in the photo - my dad is a HUGE Civil War/Revolutional War/Mormon Battlaion re-enactor and their entire basement is his *museum* ;) That's my SIL on the drums and Johnny kicking it back on the couch. We haven't all been together in several years and it has really been a treat for us all to hang out!

Merry (belated) Christmas!

a significant date....

December 22. Nothing seems out of the ordinary for this particular day, right? Well, in our household, December 22 holds 2 significant memories.
December 22, 2005 - John returns after an 18 month deployment to Iraq! We were so excited that he was able to make it home in time for Christmas! (you might notice that we are all wearing summer clothing (in Dec??) actually these were taken when he came home for his 2 week mid-tour leave (we actually didn't get any photos of the official homecoming in Dec)... regardless.. we looked forward to Dec. 22 for a long time!!! Hooray - we are reunited finally!Fast forward 2 years to Dec. 22, 2007... that just happens to be the day that we found out we were having twins! We had made an appointment to find out if we were going to be a family of 5 boys or add a little girl at the end... SUPRRISE! we got the shock of our lives! I can't believe it was just 1 year ago today that we got the best news ever! (I had the absolute cutest ultrasound pic of the girls that we got that day... but sadly, it got wiped when my computer died back in Oct.) soooo.... fast forward one more year to Dec. 22, 2008 and here is what our little twins have turned into (aren't they little dollies!)

So even though today might seem like any other day during the week of Christmas - for us and our family it's a happy day that makes us appreciate the importance and joy of family :)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!

update from the sickies....

I can honestly say that I now know what many moms of multiples feel like (I belong to a twins forum and read on a daily basis on how moms can't ever get anything done because the babies cry, whine, want to be held, etc.. and that so isn't my case - but after yesterday... I got a small glimpse of what some of those troopers go through on a daily basis!)

Yesterday was not a happy day in the Vogt home... things turned a bit worse and Seth started throwing up in the afternoon and both babies were so miserable and they weren't happy unless someone was holding them and walking around! So basically I had to set the oven timer for 20 min. intervals and the 2 older boys (even though they were sick themselves) took turns walking a baby while I continually had one in my arms -- yeah, I was sooo ready when 6pm hit and they went to bed! (I was also VERY grateful to my friend who had called earlier in the day to see if I could babysit - but the upon hearing how my day was going offered to bring me dinner! It's really hard for me to accept service but after her insistance - I hung up the phone very relieved to not have to worry about dinner! Thanks Cindi!) Today I'm happy to report that (although they're not "back to normal") they are significantly better and are content in their jumperoo's or crawling around on the floor. Poor miss Aubrie still doesn't feel so good and has a very sad look on her face - that's why I had to go find a happy picture of her! When I took this picture of her she was all smiles and giggles! Can't wait for those to return :)

Get these germs out!

Alright, so this is our first winter/flu/cold season we're facing with being a large family (even when we had the 4 boys, I didn't feel like our family was necessarily all that big... but add the twins and yeah... it feels big - LOL) anyway, I'm hoping this isn't a foreshadowing of how our winters will be from here on out.... just a quick rundown of what I'm facing today....
3 kids with fevers
1 with a double ear infection
and another one with a sore throat and cough....

to top it off, I got some weird stomach thing last night and was nauseous/threw up and John just called from work saying he's felt very nauseous this morning as well :(

ok, I'm looking on the bright side... at least it's all hitting us this week and not next for Christmas! send us HEALTHY thoughts! :)

My Sweet Seth

The older boys haven't been getting much "blog time" lately so thought I'd share a few of my thoughts on my second son - Seth.

During my pregnancy with him I had several really neat experiences that let me know that he was going to be a special little spirit from heaven joining our family. He is so obedient and mindful and very much a peacmaker! Whenever we ask the boys to do something (whether it be their chores, homework, grab a baby, etc...) Seth will jump up immediately and do it! (none of our other boys seem to want to follow his lead and we have to ask like a bazillion times - yikes!) The other day I was tending to Nathan (poor boy has yet another double ear infection!) and I was saying how I wasn't able to get to the list of things I wanted to get done - like the vacuuming) and the next thing I know - I hear the vacuum going on upstairs! He had dragged our vacuum (which is a heavly ol' Kirby) up the stairs and was helping me out - he is just sooooo sweet! He is extremely bright and at every parent teacher conference the teacher tells me how she wishes she had a whole classroom of Seths :) He is such a well rounded, well balanced boy who I KNOW is going to make some girl so happy in this life! I'm so proud of him and how hard he works at the things that will help him become a better person - oh, it's funny too - he's getting to the point where John and I embarass him (especially if I ever try to sing or dance to the Hannah Montannah theme song (which for some reason about drives him over the edge - LOLOL)

Anyway, thanks for letting me ramble on about my sweet boy....

Duck Hunting/Why I'm Awesome/Calling Out All the Ladies

So whenever Shandy posts one of her many accomplishments, praise gets heaped upon her (and rightfully so, she's awesome.) She gets like 10-15 posts commenting on how awesome she is (again, I agree.) Now whenever I post something, I get 0-3 posts. I'm calling you ladies out.

I rule. You're deflating my ego. So I'm calling out you non-comment leaving readers. You know who you are (don't make me name names).

Yesterday me and some fellas from work drove a few hours up to Lake Cascade and went duck/goose hunting. We weren't overly successful but did get three birds. The lake was pretty low and so to get anywhere near the water meant that we lost all cover and concealment. Here are a few pics.

Lake Cascade at about 8:00. It had finally stopped snowing and had warmed up to about 20 degrees.

One set of our decoys

Pete and his boys with their old lab, Bailey. Rick is in the background.

Ryan goes a little more than I do.

I look like a sexy Eskimo

Pete retrieving his decoys

She was delicious. Shandy broiled her up with some lemon pepper.

And there you have it.

Fun Stuff

May 23, 2009

Ok.. I know that it's starting to get warm and summer is upon us.. BUT, just wanted to link up Amy and her Baby Leg Warmers for anyone who might be interested! It would really be beneficial to anyone who had a little one learning to crawl this summer - for some added protection :) Anyway, she is AWESOME and her work is really top notch! She sent those adorable green/white striped leg warmers for my girls (I have photos on the blog) for St. Patricks Day and so I know you won't be dissapointed! Anyway, go check her out :)

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May 14, 2009

To start it off... I wanted to let everyone know that FabuLESSly Frugal (<-- yes, it's clickable) is hosting a FREE giveaway of my photography! You get digital files AND professional prints in the featured package (I'm tellin' ya.. it's a great deal!) There's only a couple of more days to enter before the drawing (they are randomly picking a number from the comments) - so everyone has the same chance of winning! Yippee!
and while you're there (the photography giveaway is several posts down - or there's a direct link to it on their side bar)... but there are tons of other great deals and tips on there - so be sure to get your fill of how to be more fabulessly frugal!

Christmas Cards

The Christmas cards are all addressed and (mostly) on their way to their destination! I went pretty simple this year for our cards and didn't go with a traditional color scheme but think they turned out pretty cute anyway. This second photo is our newsletter that I had printed on the back (if you'd like to read it - just click ont he photo and it'll get big for you) of the postcards from Vista print -- I wasn't too impressed with their printing color (seemed to have a red overlay on it or something) but for the price I can't complain! We've started to receive some cards as well and I have to admit that look forward to getting the mail a lot more during December! I especially love reading about everyone and seeing pictures (including the parents!)... so many people (and yes, in years past, I've been guilty of this) only send pics of the kids -- and while I love seeing them in all their cuteness... I want to see the parents (who are the ones we're friends with and mostly haven't seen in many years!)... ok, so there's my PSA -- get everyone in the pic to send out - we all love seeing what you look like!
on a side note -- Do I look chinese? A boss of John's many years ago (whom had never met me but only seen pictures of me that John had up in his office) asked if I was Asian! Imagine my surprise when John told me this! heheheh....looking at the above photo - I guess I can see it... when I smile my eyes sort of disappear?? oh well, asians are beautiful so I'm taking it as a compliment! LOL

a jog down memory lane....

Tonight after I dropped off the boys at Scouts, I had to run to Costco -- and on the way there I tuned in to Lite 108 for their continuous Christmas Songs (which started before Thanksgiving this year I might add....) Anyway, an original version of Here Comes Santa Claus comes on and for some unknown reason I get all choked up and teary eyed and start bawling as I am singing all the words to this Christmas song! Now, I'm not normally an emotional gal (and I'm not pregnant so don't know where all the hormones were coming from...) but anyway, my mind started reminiscing back to my favorite Christmas (actually I have 2) from when I was a child. I remember I was 10 years old and in the 5th grade and there were 2 things on my Christmas list that I wanted really B.A.D. - a Cabbage Patch Doll (HAD to be a boy one...) and 10 speed bike. Well, Christmas morning came and it was beyond my wildest dreams -- there was my 10 speed - all red and silver and shiny (with the super skinny road tires - LOL) and I was sooooo thrilled... but then I looked down sitting in front of my new bike was... not one... but 2 Cabbage Patch Dolls - I had TWINS!!! 2 little boys (they were fraternal as one had brown hair and one had blonde). The brunette's name was Byron and the Blonde was named Abe (can't remember what names they originally came with but I renamed them and then had their Birth Certificates sent off to be "corrected" - hehehehe). We were living in Mississippi at the time (and with the weather being like 80!) I was able to go out and ride my bike and then come in and be a mother to my sweet little twin boys :) I recently came across of a photo of that Christmas (I think it's on my EHD so next time it's hooked up, I'll see if I can't find it to post :) Anyway, the song ended on the radio - I felt silly for crying at a fun, upbeat Christmas song - and walked into Costco with my happy memories still on my mind....

Christmas Party, girlies things and deals

We had John's Christmas party for the unit that he's the commander for - The December Drill weekend is always my favorite of the year because it's a shortened drill and part of it involves the families all attending the party! They decided to have some different stations set up for the kids with camo face painting, a station where the kids could put on all of the body armor and gear and hold a real machine gun (unloaded of course...) Here's a picture of Ben all decked out - he could only handle all of this one for like 3 minutes and then he was like "It's too heavy!" They also gave kids rides in armored personnel carriers and the boys thought that was FUN! and of course there was lots of food! yummy food I might add... Since John was in charge of it he wasn't "right there" with me so I just let the boys go get some food for themselves and this is what Ben came back with!!




On Friday night I had gone over to an Open House that 2 of my SUPER TALENTED friends were having and found some awesome stuff for the girls! Janiece (sewmanybows@yahoo.com) made the hats and bows that the girls are wearing! I got sooo many compliments on them and then Jenny (jenny@babybellajewelry.com) made the beautiful bracelets! I love them all! and the funnest part is that the girls bracelets have little charms on them and Aubrie's says "Big Sis" and Lexi's says "Lil Sis"! isn't that a hoot!? I think they're so adorable that I had to get an upclose picture of them! Plus, I couldn't resist getting some photos of the girls all ready for the party -- but they were both so fascinated with each others bows that when I'd get one looking at the camera - the other would be eyeing the others bows - LOL... oh well... they're cute and fun and I love them! of course the only way I could get a good shot of the bracelets was while they were eating... so excuse the bottles - heheheh

... and then just one more thing - remember the gorgeous Christ pictures that I told everyone about at Costco... well, on Thursday, my 2 arrived!! I was soooo excited but when I opened the big one (that was to be of Jesus stepping out of the tomb entitled "He Is Risen") I opened it up to find <--- this picture of Christ (In His Glory)... At first I was pretty bummed! but then the more I looked at it I actually liked it better! and so I hung it up in the spot that I had appointed and love it!! but I figured I'd better let culturalhall.com and let them know of the mixup and guess what they said... they're sending me the correct one AND I get to keep this one! I'm so excited! It was already a good deal and now it's doubly good!

Do you like my New Look?!

So over the past year or so I've been giving the older boys some basic photoshop lessons and it looks like they're putting their knowledge to good use in giving me (and my awesome doctor that delivered both Ben and Nathan at home) a new makeover!!
I was browsing for a certain photo this morning (on the boys computer) and came across this and thought it was hilarious! I love how not only do I have Bulbasaurs face, back and arm... but I also have Charmeleon's tail! and then the Chancey "hat" on Karen is too much!

ps: for those of you not familiar with Pokemon -- these are pokemon characters that we have been metamorphed into!

FREE STUFF for CHRISTMAS!

ok.. so our ward is doing a "Craigslist" type of deal - except that everything listed is FREE... I have thoguht this was such a fab idea but don't know how well it's being utilized...Anyway, yesterday I did some decluttering and am ready for to get this stuff out of my house - like ASAP! I'm going to be making a run to the DI soon so if you see anything below that you like - come and get it!! Feel free to pass this link on to whomever you think it will benefit - I know many of us are in the same boat with trying to be more frugal and making ends meet in this economy so I'm hoping that I can help some of you out... Also - feel free to post your own "Free Craigslist" and link it up here...

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Some additional items that didn't make it in time for photos:

Size 6 BLUE NIKE BASEBALL CLEATS (big boys)

2 TRAVEL SWINGS for infants (they work great but recline more than they should (Nathan had too much fun riding in them as much as the girls! LOL)

I also have the range hood that was installed when we moved in - never used - we took it out and installed the microwave above the oven instead...

ok.. so I hope to get some phone calls today :)

UPDATE: ** POKEMON VIDEOS, ALL STAR WARS, 2 NERF GUNS, BOTH MIRRORS AND THE VSMILE STUFF ARE SPOKEN FOR** please come by asap to pick up your goods - I'd like them outta here :)

ps: if anyone has legos no longer being used I could go for them! August & Seth like doing still motion picture movies and use legos for this (so not necessarily the big duplo blocks - but any of the other sizes)

getting into the holiday mood!

so I LOVE these Elf videos -- they always make me smile...
enjoy ours!
ps: there's a limit of only 5 spots - and since I have 6 I was begining to fret about who I would leave out! Then it hit me -- my girls are identical - no one will ever know that both of them aren't in the clip - LOL -- well, I guess you all will - since I just told you - oh well....

ok.. we had some technical difficulties -- it automatically posts it to your blog for you and since I have mulitple ones it posted to a different one - and so now I've got to figure out how to get it here.. oh well.. trust me.. it was cute - LOL

Thankfulness

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2008

My Great-Great Grandmother was born on Thanksgiving day and was subsequently named Thankful -- kind of a fun fact from me today :)

Lots of things I am incredible thankful for in my life but 1 that doesn't get publically thanked (enough) is that I'm thankful for Good Visiting Teachers! Since moving into this ward 16 months ago I have been blessed to have had awesome Visiting Teachers! There's been a few partner changes in that time, but Val Ross has remained constant -- she goes beyond the required once a month visits and I really feel like I could call if ever I needed her help! The area that I really wanted to touch on was that she helps me every single sunday at church with the babies! I have never asked her - she just comes and parks next to me during Releif Society and takes over when I have to go play the piano. she always does this with a smile on her face too! There's even Sundays when her husband takes their little girl (almost 1) to EQ and then she STILL comes and helps me out - even though she could sit and listen and really get something out of RS... so for that I am truly grateful! She is just so thoughtful and fun and I know that Heavenly Father had a hand in inspiring the RS leaders to have me be assigned to her! Thank You Val!! Besides - she gives rockin' haircuts - and for that I'm grateful for too! Anyway, my VT's brought this super duper cute Turkey Pumpkin (that you see up above in the photo) and I've just loved it! It was even our centerpiece for our Thanksgiving Dinner - yippee!!

Urban Family rockin' downtown =)

Alright - I'm thinking I might need to just start a seperate photography blog for all of the recent sneek peeks (but I guess truthfully, it's now pretty much too cold for any more practice shoots - so maybe that'll be something for me to work on over the winter...) Anyway, I've got LOTS to share today -- I always feel more in my "zone" when I'm downtown doing the urban shots - but didn't know how family photos would translate into that realm of photography... so I met up with the Deebles and we had a blast! ok.. I guess I can only speak for myself - But I totally was diggin' their attire and they were all so easy going and relaxed! This was also a big milestone for me as the entire session was shot in manual (and I just learned how this weekend - LOL) - so here are some of the shots...

my girlies

My girls are growing up! I can't believe that at the end of this week they're going to be 7 months old! It has flown by so fast! They've hit a couple of new milestones this past week....

* They now hold their own bottles! I'd gotten rather good at feeding them simultaneously - one to the left of me while the other laid across my lap - me holding each of the bottles (and then I'd switch positions at the next feeding of who was on my lap)... anyway, they both feed themselves their bottles - I just sort of sit with them and do "bottle control" in case they drop it and need some help :)

* They both got their 2nd tooth on the same day (a week ago Sunday)

* Lexi is about to CRAWL!! she gets up on all 4's and rocks back and forth (she actually moved about 2 paces this morning alternating her arms and legs) so I know it won't be long before she's mobile.... Aubs is content to roll around :)

Enjoy the pics I took of them today - they are just so sweet and loveable!

I loved Twilight and I'm not ashamed

It was awesome. I'm secure enough in my manhood to declare this. We arrived at Edwards (how fitting) about 50 minutes early only to discover we were about the 250th and 251st people in line. The demographics of the line reminded me of th etime I surprised Shandy by taking her to a Kelly Clarkson concert for her birthday. Very few dudes, mostly 13 year old girls. I ran into one of my Soldiers while in line. We sheepishly nodded to each other and I said, "I'll just pretend I didn't just see you here and you do the same."

- John

Holy SOCKS Batman!!

ok.. I don't know about any of you... but when it comes to the laundry - I HATE socks!! I got so tired of not having matches making it out of the laundry together that I started a "sock drawer" (way back in like March) where I would stash all of the socks that didn't have a match after they came out of the dryer. Well, that sock drawer turned into 2 sock drawers and before it could grow into a "sock dresser" I decided it was time to put them all together... So I dumped all of the mateless socks onto the middle of the floor (ok, originally I dumped them on my bed but then had to move them down to the floor since I didn't get to them on that day - yikes!) and so I attempted to match some up this morning with the girls rolling around in them - wasn't working either... so I STILL have a mound of socks in my room.... anyone find pleasure in matching up socks? If so... come on over! I'm thinking that will be a super fun *game* for the boys!

John's idea - throw these all away and just buy all of the same socks from now on so there will always be matches! At this point.. I'm liking that idea! why do socks have to be so expensive for that plan to work?

2 family photo sessions

After some gentle nudges from my best friend - I decided to take my photography beyond my own family and took some for their Christmas card - I totally thought it would be a repeat of my nightmare of a photo shoot (since she's got 6 children too)... lucky for us she didn't have a 2 year old (this year anyway - heee!) and they were all so cooperative! I was quite impressed and it gave me hope for next years attempt when Nathan is a bit older and before the girls hit 2! Anyway, here are a few from the session....

how sweet is that with her youngest son trying to give his little sis a kiss! Totally not even prompted!

and I totally love this one! It's so hilarious! With her looking at her husband with that expression of "yep... we ARE a crazy family!" I thought since so much fun and craziness was going on - I'd empahasize it with an Urban processing...

and then since I was already going to be down at the park... my other friend was hoping for some family photos... so here are some from that session... again - I was so impressed with the cooperative nature of everyone! I'm so jealous - boohoo (LOL)... but seriously, it was pretty fun :)

and a farewell one to end with....

new teeth, getaways & face paint

It's official - my little girls are getting teeth! I knew they'd been teething for a while now but at a baby shower on Saturday one of my friends said "hey, I just saw a tooth!" I was like "what?!"... sure enough.. little Lexi had a tooth popped through! Aubrie is right there with her -not quite erupted yet - but a definite bump and whiteness trying to show through... so I'd imagine any day now... They've done really well with it and so I'm conting my lucky stars! ID twins usually get their teeth within days of each other so I'm antcipating A's real soon!

**Update: as I was putting Aubrie to bed I saw that her tooth is in too!**



As you all know - yesteray was Veteran's Day -- Thank you to everyone (including John and myself - hehehhe) for sacrificing your time and service for the sake of our great country! Several local businesses were showing their gratitude with extending their products for free to military personnel -- The Anniversary Inn being one of them... So... John and I got to sneak away for an awesome getaway. We only had to sneak the girls into the room in our suticases and pray they didn't cry (since children aren't allowed) -- JUST KIDDING! (sorry, couldn't resist that one - LOLOLOL)... Actually John's mom (who is the Ultimate Mother In Law!) came and stayed the night with our children and got them all ready and off to school this morning while John and I slept in until 9am and had a wonderful breakfast in bed =)..... Just in case any of you are curious - we stayed in the lighthouse room -- oh, we also went to the Olive Garden for dinner the night before -- Spending some good quality alone time with John was really wonderful! Thanks again, grandma for watching the kids overnight!



Also this past weekend was another BSU game - Here's what the guys decided to go as this week.... They have been painting up since the 2004 season (so I have many pics over the years of the different artisitc face paintings... and have been working on a post with some of my favorites through the years... so stayed tuned for that one!).... After the game John and Brent started jammin' out to Rock Band -- I'm telling ya - it's quite the sight to see 2 grown men in their 30's with orange and blue face paint on beating on the drums and singing at the top of their lungs to "Dirty Little Secret"! I even got some video of it - but thought I'd spare them the embarasment - hehehe - but yes, quite the entertainment! And then if that wasn't enough... when grandma brought the older boys back from going to Disney on Ice -- I guess the cotton candy came in a bag with a crown around it and when the boys got home - anyway, John had crashed on the couch - and Ben went and put the crown on his head -- I about died laughing! isn't that the best!? Anyway.. enjoy the pics =)

Just so you all know...

...I love my wife.

- John

only 2 days left...

....to be able to get a steal of a deal at Costco!

so last night we had an enrichment activity over at a gal in our ward (Tiffany's - for all you local peeps) and she had the MOST AMAZING L.A.R.G.E. (like a 3ft x 4ft) picture of Christ (that's pictured on the left) that I just absolutely fell in love with and so I asked where she purchased it (she had just gotten it that day) and I was surprised when she answered Costco! and.... for onlyl $199! yes... you read that correct! (that same size painting sells for $540 on their website so it's an incredible deal!) so anyway, I went down there today and was sooooo impressed and moved by all of the beautful pieces of art and at the prices they were selling at - (ranging from $39-$209) - but they're only there for 2 more days (at Costco - at those prices...) So if any of you have been debating getting some awesome church art - now is the time! oh, and this DOES include the awesome 5" hardwood distressed frame too!

Here's a link to their website: http://www.culturalhall.com/ that has what they sell (pretty much all of it was there at Costco but if it's not - they ship it to your house for free - yippee!)

oh, and they also customize the artwork (if you want...)

It was soooo hard for me to choose! but I ended up with the one pictured above and then this one of the Boise Temple (that I ended up having customized -- with our name, wedding date and then "Boise Temple" written in the upper left corner like the one below: