Weekend Update

Isn't that a segment on SNL?? Regardless, it's fits for this posts title :)

Thursday Ben lost one of his top teeth - he's been "working on it" for about 3 weeks and finally John said "let me wiggle it and see how loose it is..." and that was the end of it... he pulled it out in one swoop! That kind of stuff gives me the heebie jeebies but am glad the tooth is out! Here's a pic of him with his new smile :) He got $2 from the tooth fairy and spent it promptly the next day at the Halloween store on some halloween makeup....

John stayed home part of the day on Friday. I had gotten an email from JC Penny's advertising their 50% off clearance sale that was starting that day - so I ran down to the mall and got some amazing deals! (I also had a coupon for an additional 30% off - so it was really a steal!) I got clothes for next season (summer) and also a few additional items for the boys' winter wardrobe. I also was able to get the girl's Halloween costumes -- they are going to be...... STRAWBERRIES! The costumes are too adorable and I am excited to dress them up and do their Halloween photo shoot! Friday afternoon, I took Ben, Nathan and the girls for a little playdate with our old neighbor (Shaina) in Nampa. While we were there, Grandpa showed up (he was showing a potential renter our old house) and asked afterwards if we wanted to see inside of it (he had done lots of work to it and replaced the carpets and did some molding work and repainted it all -- it really looked sharp!) BUT.. it really made me appreciate all of the space we have in our current home! The bedrooms and bathrooms and kitchen (ok.. basically the whole house!) seems soooo confining. I feel so blessed that we have the means to live in a house that accomodates our large family! Saturday was a football game for Seth - John took some time off of drill to take him there - they lost again :( but they had a fun time. They also got rained on. Today is conference (which I've been excited for to be spiritually rejuvenated!)... the boys and I played "Family Fun" by Cranium this morning waiting for conference to start (we got it last year for Christmas and we just played it for the first time today! it was actually really fun and just like the name suggests - VERY FAMILY FRIENDLY.... it was Ben and I against August and Seth - who do you think won??)

and then when conference started (and the Tabernacle was singing the opening hymn) Nathan got him little blankie and went and perched himself in front of the TV and watched so intently... it was very touching. Of course that only lasted for about 5 min. and by the half way mark he had made his way into the other room to watch some cartoons. I'm glad that we recorded it so I can go back and really be able to listen (when john gets home) as I don't feel like I got as much out of it as I could have!.... after the morning session August made us pancakes for lunch - he's a really good pancake maker :) I did like listening to the Prophet and will close with some of his thoughts that touched me.... He told us that we need to find joy in the journey, create good memories for the future, and remember that what is most important involves the relationships we develop within our families and with our friends.

update on school picture day...

so remember a while back when I posted that I completely forgot it was picture day?? well.. the results came back yesterday. They prooved to be just what I expected (see proof on the left). So.... to remedy it, I headed out in the backyard with camera in hand to find my unsuspecting target (aka: BEN - who was happily playing with his friends....) Actually it was quite painless, less than 5 min and here's the result I got.

When Seth got home with John (after the BSU game) I asked if he had his picture packet... alas, since John got him out of school early to get all painted up for the game (on a side note here: so john was already painted up when he went into the school to get Seth... he was quite the sight! I asked Seth if he was embarrassed by it and he said "No way! it was cool! and lots of people took his picture!" LOL), anyway, so he didn't get his pictures... so stay tuned to see how his school pics turned out... I'm quite curious - LOL

Everyone's home from school today and I have such high visions of 4 lovely boys scrubbing down walls and kitchen cabinets today... I'm feeling like the house really needs an overhaul! Better get to work while the girls are still napping :)

5 months old

Aubrie and Lexi turned 5 months old yesterday! I had planned on posting this yesterday but John has been out of town for the past 6 days (he'll be home this evening - hooray!) and being a single mom to 6 is quite exhuasting! (and can I just add that I am SO GRATEFUL that we only had 3 boys when he was deployed to Iraq - hehehe). Alright... back to the subject... so when we found out there were 2 baby girls in the womb I was scared and excited and thrilled and aprehensive all at the same time. I didn't know what to expect and since I wanted to be realistic - John and I prepared ourselves for months of sleep deprivation, screaming babies and preemies. I don't know HOW we got blessed so much - but we did and brought home 2 BIG babies who don't scream and who are very good sleepers :) oh, and who are VERY cooperative to let me dress them up and pose them on a daily basis - LOL. No new milestones happened this month and I haven't taken them to the DR's to know their current weight but I do have some pictures to share of them (shocker, I Know!) Lexi is still rolling around while Aubrie is content to just grab her feet and sway back and forth... and they are both starting to drool big time so we'll see if any little teeth will show up in the next month or so (August was 4 months when he got his first tooth and Nathan was almost 9 months ... so we'll see which one they follow after more closely :)

oh, and I also wanted to comment on their outfits -- right after we had the ultrasound, Toys R Us had their 50% off clearance (and Becky Gomez called and clued me in on it - as I had no idea!) and I picked up both of these outfits (and much more! LOL) and including the shoes (that I got online) I paid less than $10 for EVERYTHING! They only had 1 pair of the jeans that lexi's wearing (on the right) and I'm bummed b/c I think they are just toooo cute!

photography...

So in the evenings I've been reading up on some photography & new techniques in photoshop and it totally got me in the mood to do (another - LOL) photo shoot of the girls. I put my favorites into this 1 min. montage :) Just FYI I put an "A" on the pics of just Aubrie and "L" on Lexi's...

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

DNA test results are in....

any guesses??...... We got the girls' DNA tested earlier this month (which just involved swabbing the inside of their cheeks and sending it off to a lab in California) and the results came in a few days ago.... Aubrie and Lexi are IDENTICAL!! We either thought they had to be ID or very similiar fraternal twins. Here's a brief science lesson for everyone :) After an egg is fertilized, if it splits between days 3-5 (while it is still in the fallopian tube) they will have seperate placentas and seperate sacs (which was the case with the girls). If twins share a sac or placenta - they don't split until day 9 (and if it splits after day 9 - it will result in conjoined twins). At that stage of development (the first 2 weeks) cells are doubling at such an exponential rate that twins that are *together* longer (like until day 9 vs. splitting earlier at day 5) will typically look more alike since they are the exact same unit for such a long period of time (in regards to development). Once an egg splits different genes can turn on and off (and result in identicals having their differences - such as: Lexi is tongue tied and Aubrie's not... Lexi has a birth mark on her arm and Aubrie has a freckle on her leg whereas the other one doesn't etc...). Something else that's kinda cool is that only 9% of all twins are like Aubrie and Lexi (being ID and having seperate sacs and placentas) so it's not that common. 30% of all twins are Identical (and of that 30% only a smaller % have seperate "stuff") so that is why it's more common than not to have fraternal twins. Regardless of how the test results came back - really wouldn't have changed anything (except now we know what to tell people when we get that #1 questions... so are they ID?? hehehhe). Also, ID twins are just spontaneous and have no factors based on heredity. So there's your biology lesson for today! LOL

so I'll end with some cute pics of my little ID girlies...

Sharing Pics :)

As most of you know... I LOVE PHOTOGRAPHY! and wish I knew more!! Anyway, I took a little "photo nature walk" yesterday with Nathan and the girls (after they were all fresh from their naps...) and here are some of the shots that I got of Nathan (sadly, upon my return, I realized that my camera was NOT on the correct meter reading or area focus... but some shots still turned out and I made up this storyboard to house them...) On a side note: I found a whole bunch of 10x20 frames (PERFECT for storyboards) at Shopko marked down 80% so they were only like $7 -- and their 4x10 frames were only $4.99 -- so I picked up enough of the bigger ones to do a storyboard for each one of the kids (in fact, August is due for his photo shoot this afternoon - wish me luck - LOL). oh, and speaking of photos -- today was picture day for Ben and Seth -- and do you think I remembered?... no -- Do you think they went in cute clothes?.... nope. Do you think I at least combed their hair?... nada. So I called John in a panic around 10:40am (when I remembered) and he said one word... RETAKES! heheheh. I don't know why I pay for school pictures each year when I take my own of them like every month -- but I guess there's something about that gray marbled backdrop that reminds you of the yearly milestones... When Ben got home from school - he came and found us on our nature walk (actually we were just on the bike path right behind our house... so while he was there I snapped a few...)and this photo just cracks me up! I was trying to get the girls to give me some simultaneous smiles - so I was singing and dancing and then they gave me this look!

Well, my *me time* AKA: nap time is just about to come to an end... so better jet for now. Happy Thursday! (my favorite day of the week!)

It's Birthday Time!

Can it be true?! My little Nathan has turned the big 2! Since our evenings are quite hectic (with John and Seth gone to football every night) we decided we'd better celebrate his party on Sunday evening... so John's parents, sister and grandma all came over and we had dinner, cake and ice cream and had him open his presents. We sang to him and he got all embarrassed that so much attention was on him - it was absolutely adorable!!! I made a WW cake for us all - but got him a little personal chocolate cake from Walmart - here he is chomping into it...Then I got all nostalgic and started reminiscing about his birth 2 years ago... John had just flown out to Wisconsin that morning with the Army and wouldn't you know it... that was the day Nathan decided to join us :) John's mom had come to spend the night with me "just in case" something happened and so I wouldn't be alone - This would be my second homebirth with Karen and I was pretty excited about it! I had just gotten done tucking in the boys when I really started contracting- so I called Karen and told her I'd call her if things kept progressing (since she'd already been out for a false alarm - oops :0 -- anyway, I called John about 9pm and told him that this was the real thing and he needed to get on the next flight home - he actually was able to make it back pretty quickly - but it wasn't fast enough to be there for the birth. I was so considerate and let everyone (Anne and my whole birth team) sleep until about 2am - when I went in and woke up Anne. I then called Karen and told her that I felt like I needed her to come over asap... upon her arrival, she checked my dilation and declared that I had waited too long to call her and that I was already at 9cm! Anne hurried and called all of the members of the "Team Vogt" birth team and they all arrived in record time - LOL. Looking back, I think my body was apprehensive to go through this huge experience without John by my side becuase it was a couple of hours before Nathan was born - he arrived at 5:32am weighing in at a whopping 9lb 6oz and was 22 inches long. John was on the airplane at that exact time - but the stewardess' got permission from the CPT. to let him be on his cell phone during the flight - so he was able to hear Nathan's first cries and we also sent him a picture over the phone right after he was born. He got back home shortly after 12:00pm. Here is a "before" "birth" and "now" shot of my little man! (and yes, I know, that I don't look 9 months pg. here - but I asure you I was - LOL... I never get real big when I'm pregnant - and so when I was pg. with the girls - although I only looked like should have been having 1 baby - to me I felt incredibly huge and miserable!!)

and here is a scrapbook LO I did for Nathan's 1st year book with all of the members of Team Vogt - I made these shirts up for them and had their favorite numbers printed on the backs along with their names -I though they turned out pretty cool :) Each of these ladies had a specific job to do that kept the whole birthing process running smoothly... I believe that they each "stepped it up" as well - since John wasn't there.. they knew I'd need to rely on them more! Which I totally did... (hey, Lynette - do you still have some "war wounds" that I left on you??? so sorry for that!)and here are 2 additional LO's I did for his 1st year book that have some of my most favorite pics of him! The bottom one (in B/W) is an absolute fav. pic of mine! He was/is such a cute lil' guy!

Happy Birthday my sweet little boy!!

Football Time...

so as most of you know... John really does put the FAN in Fanatics when it come to Boise State football... He and several of his buddies go all out and paint themselves for every home game here in Boise... I'm telling you - it's almost like an all day affair when BSU is playing - starting from putting on BSU gear as soon as he wakes up (and encouraging everyone else in the house to do the same!) to reading up on the BSU forums, talking to everyone and their dog about the game and then having everyone congregrate here to get painted up (usually about 4 hours prior to the game actually starting). They have season tickets for the South End Zone and it's quite the experience in and of itself! BSU has already had 2 home games this season so far and here's a pic from each of them... Below is Bill, John (right) and little Ben - g'ma dropped him off at the game so he wasn't able to get painted up...and here's John and August all ready for the game!

and this past Saturday was another football game for Seth - he has one every Saturday until the end of October.... Here's a picture of Seth and John all ready to leave for the game. I have to admit that it's actually pretty nice (and convienent) that John is one of the coaches - that ensures Seth will actually get there on time AND daddy will always be there to watch him :)

metamorphosis of pregnancy...

so I sit here trying to get motivated to go scrub some spots out of the carpet (Ok.. formula TOTALLY leaves black spots on your carpet! ugh)... I looked over and saw my "profile" pic and it got me thinking... in just a little over a years time - my looks have drasitically changed. Yes, I know that I gave birth to twins... but still.. it's quite fascinating to me (and a bit sad - LOL) to see how drastically one can change with a pregnancy. granted these are just head shots - but wow! I look like I've been through the ringer in that middle photo -- hehehe (and yet people were still nice and told me how good I looked - LOL)
and all I can say (in regards to the 3rd photo) is THANK HEAVENS the swelling went down in my face - Yikes! It has been very slow going getting back to my pre-pregnancy weight (still have like 30+lbs to go) but I just look at my little bundles of joy and think it was worth every pound!

I've got a bully on my hands...

LOL... so I was going through (attempting to organize the EHD to start putting things back onto the laptop) and came across these pics of the girls from last month... with them not being able to sit up - I wanted to try and get a new "pose" - but quickly found out that this one probably isn't the best - hehehhe

Look at that expression on Aubrie's face -haha and the best part is how Lex (the one laying down) is acting like she's dying or something!

and then this one - I can just imagine Aubrie saying "say Uncle.. c'mon.. say it!"

and poor Lexi looks like she pleading with me to get her out of that position - LOL

and then here's a storyboard of some of the other photos...

updates...

hmmm... almost a week since I updated... I'm trying to decide if that's *good* or *bad* - since previously it had been close to 8 months - heheheh. Anyway, currently August, Ben and Nathan are all spending the night with Grandma (both girls are asleep & John and Seth are out together -- Seth had football tonight plus a game tomorrow so it wouldn't work for him to go with g'ma)... and with the house all quiet (NICE!) I really wanted to get some scrapping done so this will be a short post... a quick rundown of the past few days:

Monday: I had an eye exam - got some new glasses, had my weight watchers meeting (lost another 2.4lb -- still working on getting off LOTS of the baby weight). Weekly grocery shopping afterwards.

Tuesday: John had a meeting with the Stake Pres. - I'll give updates on this after Sunday...

Wedesday: John had an appt. with the orthopedic dr. about his leg -- they referred him to a physical therapist. He, August and Seth all had Scouts that night

Thursday: John and Seth had football (they have it every night except Wed. and the weekend). I went with some friends from the ward to the Temple :)

Friday: ran some errands, met up with grandma to switch out the boys.

oh, about the laptop -- so I dropped it off on Monday and Tues. they called with the diagnosis that the Hard Drive was dead.. at this point he thought they could still retrive all the data off of it - Wed. they called and said it was ready (with a new 250gig HD - originally it was just 100G - so I'm happy about the more space!) but to my VERY VERY MUCH SADDENED HEART... they weren't able to save any of the data - so I'm trying not to dwell on it too much. Also (who knows why) but August kept deleting the photos off of the desktop (the desktop is strictly the boys computer and maybe he thought since they weren't pic he'd taken.. they didn't need to be on his computer???? so we had to have a littel *chat*) so I don't have any good pics from this week. I do have these pics I took of the girls yesterday (that I was able to save from the Recycle bin!) and although I don't particularly think their facial expressions are the cutest - I LOVE how their dresses pop agaist the black - so thought I'd share...and then one from today...and another one from this afternoon with them having their Play Time before their bath :)

Pie anyone??

So Football season has started and John is one of the coaches for Seth's team. Each year they do a fundraiser (sold these $5 coupon books to local businesses). As an incentive, any player that sold 20 of them would get to throw a pie in one of the coach's face... well, that's all the motivation that Seth needed! He got all dressed up in his uniform and went around to the people we knew in the nieghborhood and then he even went to John's work and sold all 20 - sooooo... can you guess which coach he chose?? Look below at the pic of him "giving it to Coach Dad!" A couple of the others kids chose John as well - LOL... afterwards the coachs all ran through the sprinklers to get somewhat cleaned up!On Saturday Seth had his first real game of the season. He was in charge of drinks for the team. I took the girls with me and August stayed home and babysat Ben and Nathan. Their team lost - but Seth had a fun time! You can see him in the photo below - he's #70 - getting ready to hike the ball. I had lots more photos of the game but August accidentally deleted them :( but then I remembered that one of the players dad is a professional photographer and posts all the pics from the game on a certain website so here's one that had Seth in it :)It was a Drill weekend for John so he left on Friday afternoon :( This morning I got everyone ready and out to church... granted - we were a bit late but we made it! and more importantly - Nathan went to nursery!!! hooray! but I guess since he went, the girls thought they didn't have to be on their best behavior - so I spent the next 2 hours switching back and forth between fussy babies :( yeah, it wasn't really the funnest. oh well, they're still cute - hehehe. When we got home from church, we had a surprise waiting for us - John was home! (he doesn't normally get home until ike 6ish on Drill weekends) so it was great having him home! They had a change of command ceremony today where he stepped down as the Commander and turned it over to the new CPT. - so he was a bit sad... He'll take over another company next week.

And just because I take so many pics of the girls - here are a couple from this past weekend:

computer woes

Our laptop has been giving me a coronary lately... I never know if "today is the day it will die"... ok, not quite that bad.. but still. Well, tonight I had the EHD hooked up downloading some swass digital goodies and thought to myself... "I really should back up all of the photos of the girls" - Since their birth I have taken close to 9,000 pics (of course I don't keep all of them.. I select only the ones I like - on a typical 100+ photo shoot.. I'll only keep about 10 or so...) so basically I had roughly 900 photos of our whole family for the last 4 months. I kid you not... 3 seconds after it got done transferring to the EHD.... I got the black screen of death! :( :( I hurried and plugged in the EHD into the boys desktop and thankfully EVERYTHING transferred successfully so I am feeling L.U.C.K.Y.! Plus, just tonight I uploaded about 90% of my digital scrapbook layouts to an online publisher -- so they're *safe* as well! I know that we will be able to recover everything just fine (since we have always been able to in the past) but just knowing I got the pics saved

makes me feel *better*.

So the other day (Wednesday) I had gotten Nathan out of the tub and hadn't gotten him dressed yet (was trying to get the girls dressed and fed, etc) when all of a sudden he jumped up... ran to the bathroom... lifted the lid... peed... closed the lid and then flushed!! I was like "what?! you're ready to start using the potty!" He's not even 2 yet and I'm worried he's just too young. BUT I do know that there's that window of opportunity when it comes to PT - and if you miss it -- it isn't pretty. So the past 2 days we've been staying close to home and working on using the potty. I have to admit.. the 1st day he did fairly well.. but today - he has NO interest in it.. if that's how it is tomorrow.. I think we'll stop and try again in a month or so...

Last month I ordered some little clothes for the girls from The Children's Place clearance. I got these little skirts for $2 and the shirts for like $1.75! This is them this morning ready for the day! John stayed home most of the day to get ready for Drill. I took advantage of him being home to watch Nathan and took the girls to pick up a few things at Walmart. Ok, now the girls hardly EVER cry -- like as in never (unless they're hungry basically) and I can count on 1 hand the times they've both cried simultaniously... but not today... They took turns crying the ENTIRE WM excursion.... Plus, you know you can't fit hardly any items in the cart with 2 carseats! I hadn't planned on getting much but of course kept seeing things that we *needed* and every nook and cranny was stuffed with things - LOL

2008 Update

well... I guess now that's 2008 is 75% over with - maybe I should update this blog! My side of the family started up a private blog for all of us to stay connected and I guess I've felt that since I update that quite regularly, I was doing my "blog duties"... but I have had some inquiries about when I was going to get writing on here so my friends could catch up on us... so here it goes.

I'm literally just going to give a BRIEF synopsis about everyone and then just try and post from here on out... Here's a pic of all of my men! Aren't they all just so handsome!? This was taken in July (I think....)

John has been working at his new job since Nov. of last year and so far has really been enjoying it. He's still gone 1-2 times a month with different Army/work obligations but nothing we can't handly :) Of course he's thrilled that the BSU season has officially kicked off! He was gone down to California (he left the end of July) for AT and tore both of his calf muscles on his right leg while there... he was bedridden to the couch for almost 3 weeks! He just went back to work last week! but it seems to be healing nicely and he has *upgraded* from the crutches to just a cane - heheheh. He is also one of the assistand coaches for Seth's Football team - which he really enjoys!

August is 11.5 and started middle school this year. After getting his school ID card, he kept trying to fool Ben and his little friends that he now had his driver's liscence! He's really been into making still photo movies and really does a good job! I might have to link one of them up here soon. He is such a HUGE help with the girls (and with Nathan) and he's really stepped up to being the "big brother" of our bunch!

Seth is 10 and in 5th grade. He and Ben were able to get into one of the magnet schools here that focus on math and technology. He's adapted well (to yet another school change!) and seems to be liking it. He is also in football again this year. They have their first official game of the season this Saturday. He's also been into making movies from still photos and of course video games! He is still just as sweet as ever!

Ben is 6 and started 1st grade this week. He's got 2 little best friends (that are brothers) that just live a few houses down and the 3 of them are inseperable! He is just all boy and is always on some sort of "adventure" - yesterday they went treasure hunting around the block and came home with both pockets full of interesting things! LOL he took Swimming lessons this summer and also learned how to read (my mom - the reading teacher - taught him when she came out to help with the girls).

Nathan is about to have a birthday - next week :) He'll be the big 2! he's a big *blankie* boy (and is quite attached to his binky! eeeks!) He thinks it's fun to try and be like a big boy and chase after his brothers and automatically just includes himself with whatever they're doing. I really thought he'd have a big adjustment when the girls were born (he was 19.5 months when they were born...) but he has taken them under his wing and is seriously the sweetest to them! He also LOVES throwing and catching balls (any kind... but mostly footballs).

As for me... I gave birth to twins. big twins at that! enough said.just kidding... actually things have gone SOOOO MUCH better than either John or I had anticipated. Truthfully, we both think it is so fun to have twins and think that all children should come in pairs! LOL I've taken a little break from designing (I actually started my *break* back in February - by that point I just didn't have the energy to keep it up anymore) but am planning on getting back to it here before too long. Besides my own personal store, I've been approached to sell at another digital store and have pretty much accepted their offer :) I'll tell you more about it as it gets closer...

and last, but not least.... the girls! Aubrie and Lexi are now over 4 months old and doing just as well as can be! They are both about 13 pounds right now. Lexi started rolling over (she does both back to tummy and tummy to back) but Aubrie is showing no interest - LOL. So if I ever leave them on the couch, I always put Aubrie next to the edge to be a barricade for Lex :) A typical day is like this:

6:30am - up and quick bottle before heading out the door for our morning walk at 6:50 with Tina.

7:30-8:30 - we're back from our walk and they just hang out while I scramble around getting everyone off to school

8:30-11:30 - they both take a morning nap

11:30 - eat

11:45-1:30 - play time. We sing together, they'll have tummy time, swing, interact with each other in their bumbo's or just snuggle (my favorite!)

1:30-4:00 - afternoon nap

4:00 - eat and then more play time (at this point, everyone's home from school and the boys will often times "play" with them while I'm getting dinner ready)

5:30 - bath time and then thier bedtime bottle

6:00 - off to bed

Aubrie has been sleeping through the night (6pm - 6:30am) for about 6-7 weeks now (hooray!) and Lexi gets up 1-2x's a night for a bottle. Then the next day we get up and pretty much do the same thing. They really are such a joy and a blessing to us! I take so many photos of them it isn't even funny! Last month alone, I took over 3,000 photos of them! Thank goodness for digital technology - hehehhe... Here are some pics that I took this week with a feather boa that john's mom brought for me to wear at my birthday dinner last week. Aren't they too sweet!

and just in case these weren't enough photos for you of (of the girls).. here Part 1 of their First year video I'm making...