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!