I paid 5000 coins for this?!

Lesson learned, fellow Temple Run game addicts: unlocking the wallpaper is lame. Should've saved my coins for more wings so I can finally become a 10K runner. Ugh.

I have more strollers than I have children.

They've all got a story behind them. The blue single jogger was a group gift from Brian's sisters four years ago. I registered for it at Target on a whim, thinking of course no one would get it for me. I almost cried when it showed up at my door in Provo. The double stroller came next - I won that from a Facebook contest where I had to harass my friends everyday to vote for me to win it. Pretty sure the girl who lost hated me. Or at least her sister did, because she posted, "Lots of people have multiples. That's not a big deal. My sister deserves to win because she's a military wife!" I felt a teeny bit guilty. But that quickly faded away when my Contours II by Kolcraft arrived. Best stroller ever!! That's when I developed my love for swivel wheels. It's all about swivel wheels people. Seriously.
The Jeep double umbrella stroller was a lucky yard sale find. Five bucks. We didn't really need it and have only used it like once. But if nothing else, it will be fun to sell it for more than I bought it, or give it away to a friend with younger twins! The triple jogger is my pride and joy. Hours of research went into that purchase. It was expensive. Very. But worth every cent. And Brianna's double stroller is for her twin baby dolls and was a gift from my dear friend Kdawg.
Sadly, one of these strollers left our family today. I no longer need the single jogger and posted it on Craigslist and KSL. Got lots of calls and it was gone an hour later! Lesson learned - price it higher?! No, I'm glad I gave someone a smokin' deal.
It's a good thing we have two parking spaces in our condo's garage - or where would we park our favorite modes of transportation?! (Brian parks outside :)

So many captions possible for this...

Their first hacking competition

Leave the ee out of the ool.

Brianna received this lovely belated bday card from Cougar today. It features an obese baby saying, "In honor of your birthday I didn't pee in the pool." Brianna didn't quite get it. All she wanted to know why there wasn't any money in there for her.

I fried.

Is it weird that I'm 27 yrs old and I have never ever fried anything myself? I've just never even thought about it. But today when I read the instructions on the back of the falafel package and saw the option of frying in evoo, something inside of me said DO IT! in a naughty voice. So I obeyed. Brian came home during the oil bath and had a minor cardiac infarction. To be honest - they were just ok. I mean, I'd rather save my calories for copious amounts of carbohydrates, but it felt good to be a little rebellious today.

Valentiney

This is the card I sent to my parents - with a free code from TinyPrints.  I love that site - they have great designs and a super friendly customer service. 

Premature

Thought it might be ok to try a park trip. Thought it wasn't too cold. I thought wrong. Fifteen minutes and they were all red and purpley (but of course would've stayed there all day despite the temp. Kids are suicidal like that).

Nightnight books

Brianna was thrilled to receive all these books in the mail from her Grandma McKell. Hopefully we can use them to break Brianna's bad habit of watching a movie to fall asleep. There's my bad mom confession for today.

Beary cool prize

I won this giant valentine bear for placing second at a 5k in Bountiful this morning (19:57 - the winner beat me in 19:54. It was sad. She got a stuffed moose that was even bigger than my bear). Brianna now thinks I'm the coolest person ever because I brought her home a generic medal, tech shirt (I get the kids size instead of my own, because I really don't need my 743rd race shirt) race snacks, and the bear. She says she wants to do races too. Hearing that makes me happier than all the giant bears in the world.




*Sunday night edit: so the kids were totally disenchanted by the giant bear after a short time. And I really don't need more "stuff" in my home. So I took it to Walmart since there was a tag still attached on it. Amazingly, they took it and gave me a gift card! Score! So I bought diapers with it. Because I'm wild and crazy like that.

Twinzzzzz

I take a photo like this almost every day. I never get tired of staring at them sleeping on my lap.

Is it Spring yet?!

On cold winter days when a mom wants to get out of the house, the first place most think of is McDonalds playland or some other free indoor arena. But we've discovered that the rows of spinning office chairs at Office Depot offer just as much fun, without all the nasty germs and wild ruffians at the fast food places.

SO glad she doesn't want Barbies.

I asked her what she wanted for her birthday. She said BALLOONS! So she got some. I hope she's always this easy to please for her birthday.

Who says there's no diversity in Utah...!

Double bath

Not because there's two of them... but because they often take two baths each day.

And I'm not really a clean freak type at all- they just get so messy there's no point in trying to clean them up any other way. So they hang out here a lot. Occasionally, like today, bath time had an abrupt ending when one forgot he was in the tub, not on the toilet. Yeah. Ew.

Stair Mastering

Saving her money

Temp

PEOPLE - 
Temporal Artery thermometers are SO worth it! Expensive, but super easy and accurate. Love it.
(thank you mom!)

Blurry matching twins

You may think- why post a blurry picture?! But seriously- this is an amazingly AWESOME picture, simply because they're all smiling at the camera at the same time!


And yes - matching outfits for the babies. Not an easy feat for boy-girl twins, but I think it's gender neutral clothing that works. What's the point of having twins if you can't have fun dressing them in matching clothes?!

My FOUR year old!

The problem with having children is that now there are TWO days every year that make me feel old - MY birthday, and THEIR birthday... because saying things like "my four-year-old daughter...." make me realize I'm aging. Which is basically like dying. We're all DYING SLOWLY, and birthdays REMIND ME of that! Great way to start off Brianna's birthday post, I know. But thankfully, she thinks it's AWESOME we're both getting so old! Brianna reminds me quite often that she's a big girl now - "...as big as BOUNTIFUL!" as she put it today. She's a fun, smart, sassy, sweet girl. I'm so grateful for my Brianna.

Some formal pictures. Somehow I feel obligated to get photos like this done of my children, though I really don't prefer this type. She's only smiling because I'm dancing around behind the photographer with a monkey on my head. 

Her "cake" I ordered from LearningResources.com (got a Plum District deal for it , so it ended up being almost free). It's fun - she gets to decorate her cake and trace letters on it and do the candles.... lots of sugar-free fun!

We're really looking forward to her party coming up. Lots of friends coming, and I've made it very low-key and stress-free for myself. It's so fun seeing her little face light up as we work on the plans together. And I'm happy because we're keeping the party expectations low as long as we can... because I'm sure in a few years she'll be demanding pony rides and bounce houses. 

Inside the box(es)

one and one half years old.

18 months is kindof a big milestone right?  They officially get to start going to Nursery at church (hooray!)  What else happens...hmmm... oh yeah, I write a long detailed update on every facet of their little lives. Which will sound like an update on the majority of 18 month old kids, because they're wonderfully average little toddlers. I'll try to make it a little more interesting.
Here we go.

ANIMAL SOUNDS
The most important skill for toddlers to learn, of course. Totally going to be part of their college entrance exams. Courtney and Bennett are quite proficient doing dog, cat, monkey, lion, snake, duck, skunk (PU!), and hyena (laughing).

BODY PARTS
They love to point out their toes, bellies, heads, hair, eyes, bum, knees, feet, ears, tongue, teeth.
While we're talking bodies - Bennett is definitely more solid and thick, while Courtney is much more petite and almost bony. People often comment on how light she is and how heavy he is. Which is completely odd, because they're only about a pound apart - Bennett heavier, but Courtney slightly taller. They have different walks/strides - I can tell them apart just by the different sounds of their pitter-patter down the hall, no joke.

TEETH
They've both got a complete mouthful, minus the 2 and 6 yr molars of course. They both (usually) LOVE to have their teeth brushed, but only with the kiddie electric toothbrush and Tom's Naturals Strawberry toothpaste. Very picky with their dental hygiene choices.

TALKING
Their vocabulary words that I can clearly distinguish from blabblahgagagoodoo are dog, shoe, dadda, mama, apple, juice, go, no, mine, me, I do, I see you (in response to PEEKABOO!), hi, bye, up, HOT, Amen, with more added almost every day!

PHYSIOLOGIC DEVELOPMENT
They love to run. Especially AWAY from me when I'm playing chase with them, and to my frustration - when I'm NOT playing chase with them! They're very advanced jumpers for their age, thanks to the past 6 months of having a mini trampoline with a bar to hold. Now they jump solo on the beds. Which leads to head injuries. Really glad I got that trampoline.

SLEEPING
Can you believe it.... they still wake up a few times each night!  Can't figure out why... oh, maybe because I reinforce the behavior by immediately and consistently responding to them thus rewarding their night wakings. But obviously, I don't care, or I'd have done something about it by now. Brian and I are used to it. It's now been almost 2 years since I've slept for 8 hrs straight. I'm not being facetious when I say sleep is overrated. I've been functioning just fine without it for a long time now  (or so I think?!)  At least the babies take a 2-3 hr nap every afternoon consistently, together in the same darkened room in separate cribs. They have matching brown ruffly blankies they cling to, then fling out at the end of their naps, as if freeing their precious blankies from the crib prisons.

EATING
Quite often I find myself thinking or saying, "[Courtney or Bennett] is the better eater."  Then invariably they switch. So as of today, Courtney is the better eater. She was eating carrots dipped in hummus and greek yogurt with me, while Bennett just wanted crackers. She likes milk from a sippy cup better - he prefers diluted juice  (so diluted it should be called flavored water instead). They have their own high chairs, but only use them about half the time. We make picnics on the floor often. So much easier. How lazy am I, I know. But that's how we roll. Both will try anything they see their parents eating. Of course they prefer sweet stuff (who doesn't?!) so my goal is to get them eating as much non-sweet stuff as possible. They'll thank me later when they're not sugar addicts like their mom.

NURSING
Yep. Still. Quite often in fact - maybe 5x/day. Always tandem (one freaks out if she/he sees the other nursing. It's actually really funny). I have some friends reading this and saying, "well of course they're still nursing. Why would you even use the word still? They're YEARS away from weaning!"  And others reading this thinking, "Whhaaaaatt? You WEIRDO." I could site all the research on how beneficial breastfeeding still is for them nutritionally, developmentally, emotionally, and how the W.H.O. recommends at least TWO years of breastfeeding.... but really, even if all that was bogus... this just works for our family. It feels just as normal as it did from day one.

CAR RIDING
This deserved it's own heading, since it's something they do every single day. Usually just short rides - 5 minutes to the gym, and an errand or two on the way home. They either passively tolerate being strapped in, or loudly protest.  Thinking about switching to forward-facing seats soon. I know I should wait until they're 2, but it's getting cramped. Though it's comforting to know they're much safer facing backwards (or so we're told?). I often give them sippy cup and/or snacks while they're in their seats. Thus we have disgusting messes all over the car from that.

MISC
They're good at folding their arms and bowing their heads for prayer. For 3 seconds. Hoping to work up to 9 or 10 by the time they're 2.  They love mimicking tongue clicks. They love when I throw a blanket over their heads and say, "where did Bennett/Courtney go?!?!"  THEY CLIMB EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE CONSTANTLY. Not safe. Not safe at all. They give me big huge cheesy smiles when I ask for it, or when the camera comes out (usually. Or they run away, or ignore me). They love showers. They love when Daddy comes home. They love using mommy as a jungle gym.

And I'll stop now, though I could go on and on. I worry that I don't do a good enough job documenting their lives... I mean, I have hundreds (thousands?) of pictures of them, and dozens of short videos of them on YouTube...  yet I still feel like I'm missing precious moments that I'll never remember unless it's immortalized on the www.  I have to remind myself that I have all of like 2 picture of myself as a toddler... and I don't really care. So maybe B&C will be happy enough with this.

Men in Ties

Crying Courtney

Caption: "You KILLED a big kitty to make me this dress?!!?!"

Post bath.

One of my favorite parts of our day (of course, near the END): Wrapping up the babies in their towels. They get ridiculously cute - giggling, poking each other or themselves, giving me big cheesy smiles and letting me cradle-hold them close all swaddled up... Such sweet antics in an effort to tempt me not make them go to sleep. It never works of course. I love putting them to bed. My couple hours of discretionary time at night are priceless. Of course I use up part of it blogging about how much I love my evening free time, which kinda defeats the purpose...

Basket case

It's been one of those days where I just have made no progress. I've barely been able to keep everyone alive and put out fires. Messes from days ago are still out, making it so I can't turn my eyes anywhere without seeing something I need to clean up. I feel like I have my hands in SO MANY different projects and pursuits. I can't focus on one thing for more than a few moments. I don't just have my plate full, I've gone back for seconds and that plate is full too.
And here Courtney is, MOCKING me.

....Yummy

Ketchup sandwich anyone?

Curse you Rapunzel

It seems like almost every kid has a sad episode with scissors and self-hair styling efforts. Until now, I thought we had been spared from a child with that fetish.
Brianna finally got to watch that Tangled movie. Cute, funny, sassy... We both liked it. Unfortunately Brianna liked it too much and thought it would be a good idea to CUT her OWN hair.
I caught her before she did too much damage, thank goodness. She has now lost her scissor privileges until she's 18.

Keeping herself busy

Proof the economy is improving: Extravagant company parties

With our newlywed friends, the Holts.

The Enterprise party was super fun! Fancyschmany dinner at the Radisson, corporate schmoozing, wild dancing with drunken overworked employees, and enough adult conversation to hold me over for weeks! I was sad we didn't win any of the awesome raffle prizes, despite my best attempts to stealthy acquire extra tickets, but that's ok. We got a fabulous date night.  My cousin did a great job babysitting (and I LOVE that she's 16 now and can drive herself!! :)  She said the kids went to bed easily then she watched TV and played on her phone for the next 4 hours!  I hope Enterprise gets back to doing these big parties every year. So I have an excuse to get my hair done and buy a new dress and hire a babysitter...

Bennett's Pool Pout

Somehow between my morning race, Saturday errands, and ERAC party prep, we made it to our friend's birthday party. They rented out the Rec center for it - love friends like that! Swimming is probably B&C&B's most favorite activity in the world. But instead of posting all their happy-faced frolicking pictures, I'm posting this one. Bennett fell down and pretended he was hurt. He wasn't. He just pouted. And I love his pout face.

Hair done for the ERAC party!

SnowBum

We all agreed this snowman is obviously homeless and in need of a shower.
Or we just live in a valley with terrible air quality. And grass that comes up easily. And neighbors that don't clean up after their dogs.

And the early racing seasons begins...

Isn't this place crazy looking?! I think it used to be casino.
5K at Great Saltair this morning - so fun! Great weather, good course. I was 4th with 19:54. Hoping to have a good 2012 racing season! It might be helpful if I started actually running more than once a week... and sleeping more....Maybe I'll wait til 2013 to get back to racing.

Sleepy

I know everyone posts these kinds of pictures... In fact there's probably something very wrong with you if you don't have a picture of your husband asleep on the couch holding your baby.

QT

We're all about quality time here.

Entertaining themselves

Cardboard box + hardwood floor + Courtney = Fun for Brianna

Brianna's Wedding Plans

"Can we buy this dress for when the boy asks me to get married?" 

Don't you love Reverse Camera?

I find a LOT of pictures like this on my phone (like hundreds sometimes, no joke):

Kinda hard for Brianna to deny she was playing with my phone when I have evidence like this.

Black Eyed Beans

She loves black beans. She loves brown rice. She doesn't love her purple bruise under her eye.

Morning Breakfast Picnic

Normal people do this. 

Brianna the budding artist

I'm actually reallyreally proud of this drawing- its her first attempt at people!
She wanted to draw a picture of GreatGrandma Smith before we visited her on Sunday.
Grandma was thrilled, and said it was very accurate- a skinny body with a large bum.

A picture I probably shouldn't blog.

Brian misses Hawaii. A lot. Too much.

The Great Northwest Holiday Adventures - the full scoop.

I did a few random posts about our holiday vacation adventures... little blurbs sent from my phone.... but here's the rest (because nothing's more exciting than reading other's travelogues, right?!) In no organized order at all (cuz that takes too long), here they are:

The babies loved the loft. All day. Everyday. This is where we hung out. 

Saturday was our SKI TRIP on Mt. Spokane - LOVED IT! So much fun. I was pretty rusty - I've had to skip the last few seasons cuz of babies, but I got the groove back by the end. Meaning I finally stopped snow plowing down the bunny hill. Dad actually asked me if I was expecting, since I was going so slow.  Slightly offensive - do I LOOK pregnant? Don't answer that. =P  Seriously though - gorgeous weather, short lines, and hot cider at the very top in that cute Vista Cabin. Awesome day. Dad's BF Dale came along too. They made me go down a few black diamond runs, and I pretended I wasn't praying for my life all the way down.

Kindof blurry, but I'm lucky I got a picture of these two standing still at all! Lily and Brianna were best cousin friends. Though they're about 18 months apart, they played so well together - Brianna naming the game, and Lily happily following suite. They did tea parties, dolls, dress up, and ate off the floor together.  Wish we had Lily around more! She would fit in great with our little troop. 

We hit up Costa Vida a few times for dinner. Our friend Matt Turnidge owns it, so we like to support his business. It was great to see him! Such a nice guy. My kids did ok there. No permanent damage. But restaurants and lots of small people is never ever a good mix.  Mom and I both had fish tacos. It might have been mom's last fish taco, because she spent the next 48 hours in bed and the bathroom. Poor mom - she had to say goodbye to us Sunday morning in a weak whisper. Food poisoning is a nastynasty thing. And I don't blame the taco. Support Costa Vida! :)

Brianna went to her first movie in a theater! I know she's a little old for it to be her first - I'm sure she could've handled it a year ago or so... but hellloooo - Redbox movies are a dollar.  Of course my family doesn't care about things like that, so she got to go with Mom and Cougar to the theater. And oddly enough - not even a cartoon! The "We Bought A Zoo" movie.  She loved it! And she LOVES her big cousin Cougar! He loves her too... or at least tolerates her much better now. 

I title this collage, "View From My Nostalgia Run." I did a 9.5-mile loop and hit up my favorite old trails and paths. Made me so happy. The powerline trail is the best. The only thing that makes it better now is running with my iPhone and the "RunKeeper" app. So cool. 

I just had to post this - Bennett's starting a new fashion trend. 

 Oh. Another skiing collage. Whoops. We must've had a really good time!

I went to the movies with these lovely ladies. It's the first time my dear friend Melody has had all her girls in Spokane! I won't admit which movie we saw. Hint: very few men in the theater for it!  Maria is kinda the odd one out, eh? Four short pretty blonds, then BOOM. Tall gorgeous darkie. Poor super model. 

After a few days of Mom doing 3 gourmet fabulous meals each day, I left guilty for not helping out more. So I whipped up a homemade pizza - from wheat in their food storage I ground up in the Vitamix, then made into dough in the bread machine.  Half veggie toppings, half meat. BOOYAH. 

Photos at Red Robin for Coug's 7th bday. I love Bennett's expression, top left - he's almost smiling. And poor Brianna doesn't realize she's about to have the traumatizing experience of being accidentally LEFT at this restaurant when her parents leave in separate cars. I don't wanna think about that one again. [shuddering] Happy birthday Cougie!

Fridge escapades.

I reallyreally loved reuniting with my old BF after nearly 7 years apart! I figured since I never made it out to her wedding in 2010, I owed her a plane ticket. So she got to spend a week with her mom, and a week with me! We had a great time catching up and laughing over old jokes. Maria is one of those few people in my life who I feel like I can really be myself around. She's one of the most nonjudgemental I know. I love her to bits and hope it's much less time before I see her again! A trip to Florida is definitely in our future.

The SLC airport, Christmas Eve. We arrived two hours early, prepared for madness and crowds of holiday travelers. Wrong. There were about 6 of them, maybe. I still don't get it - Christmas Eve morning, and no lines anywhere?!  Such a blessing it all went so smoothly! These jammies from their Grandma McKell earned us a lot of attention - which I did strategically, so that we'd get more sympathy if the kids were wild. 

SAMMY JO!  One of my big goals during this trip was to get a good picture of her. No offense to Sammy, she's just not too photogenic. But I think I got some very cute ones. And I loved spending time with her and making her laugh. Since she can't travel, I only get to see her about once a year when we go to Spokane. I think she was happy to see me and recognized me. 

I didn't get to spend as much time with Meredith as I would've like to, and as we have in the past, since she's not living at our parents' house anymore. But we had a crazy coincidence - I ran into her at Northtown mall! I was in this new super cute store called Vivo (LOVE their clothes!) and suddenly I hear a surprised voice say, "CHELSEA?!" and it was Mere! So we hung out for a little bit. Always nice to see my little sister. I miss her. A lot.

The coolest place on the planet - SKYHIGH in Spokane! A huge warehouse with wall-to-wall TRAMPOLINES! A big dodgeball area, kids jumping area, and a giant foam put to jump into. I was doing flips I haven't done in yeeears (I feel so old saying that). I could've stayed there for days. Brian did dozens of backflips continuously to impress the masses. Seriously, if I lived in Spokane, I'd go every single day and jump for hours. Most fun workout imaginable. 

I ran by our old house on Zeus Ct. The home I lived in from age 8-18. So many memories. But I feel like the new owners have just spit over my whole childhood, because they painted my house a yucky puke green color and let all the trees and bushes get way overgrown. The backyard looked awful. They just pooed all over my memories. Ugh.

On a run, I stopped by my old high school to get a drink. It was open cuz some wrestlers were practicing. So I did a lap around the inside, and was reminded how thankful I am that high school is over, and wondered how in the world I'm going to protect my kids from all the crap that happens there. This photo is the current track records - I've fallen off the 1600 list, and have the very last 3200m record. Sad. My legacy there is almost gone. [totally kidding - I wasn't a good runner in High School.]

The COIN GRAB!  A tradition with Papa. He throws all his spare change into this big jar all year long, then on Christmas (or the day after, in this case - that's when Dave's fam arrived) all the kids get to reach in and see how much they can grab with one hand. Very fun. Brianna made about $6! 

Airport schnanigans to keep the babies happy - their favorite game - "JUMP TO DADDY!" overandoverandoveragain. 

Saved the best for last - Brianna's sweet happy little face, with her loving Grandparents on Christmas morning.
Thank you Mom and Dad for a wonderful vacation! We love you!