Thanksgiving Day

Here are a few pictures from our very busy Thanksgiving day. We fit three families into one day. It was very busy and tiring, but it was good. Normally we would only do one or two families but I had some family from Colorado that wanted to meet the twins. So we started off our day hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Friend at their house. Sadly, Kyle couldn't make it since he was recovering from a double ear infection, strep throat and scarlet fever. Yuck! Jack was disappointed, but he still had a good time. After lunch we packed up and drove to Roberts to see my mom's side of the family. Then in the late afternoon we packed up again and drove to Champaign to see my dad's side of the family. My dad rented a wheel chair accessible van so that my grandma could join us this year. It was the first time that all the grandkids and great grandkids were together. So that was a lot of fun and enjoyable for my grandma. We did our best to get a few good pictures, but you know how it is with little ones. After hanging out for a while we packed up again and drove back to Morton. Once we unloaded kids and got them into bed, Megan and I got back in the car and picked up my mother-in-law to go shopping at Babies R Us. That didn't really pan out as expected though. I figured they would be busy, but I had no idea we wouldn't be able to get in! We stood in an incredibly long line, in the very cold outdoors for around 30 minutes before we reassessed the situation and determined it would be another hour before we could get in the store. We didn't that was worth it so we got back in the car, picked up some hot chocolate and headed home. It was sooo cold, and we were not prepared. I borrowed mittens from the lady ahead of us in line. Megan put Paul's rain coat over her dress coat she had on. I wrapped a sheet around my head and upper body. That's all was could find in the car, it was lovely. Megan said she wanted an adventure and I think we had one.

The twins with Papa.

Kaia loves babies. She was so thrilled I let her hold Logan.

All the great grandkids on the Vest side. Kaden, Dawson, Micah, Logan, Hailey, George, Jack and Schaeffer.

All the great grandkids with their great grandma.

Iowa Visit

Last Tuesday we took a day trip to Iowa to visit Megan and George. I had been promising to come up and decorate George's nursery with some cute vinyl pieces I'd made. I used her crib bedding to create a lion, elephant, monkey and letters for the walls. Then I used my Cricut to cut everything out. I had never done multi-color pieces before so I wasn't sure how it would go. But it all turned out super cute and though I did have to redo a few pieces it went better than expected. After I finished putting everything up we headed back home. But Megan had generously offered to keep Jack for the night since they were coming to Morton the next day. So he got to have a fun evening with Dennis, Megan and George. Then on Wednesday Megan took him to the John Deere headquarters where he got to climb in a bunch of tractors. Of course he loved that. He had a great time and Megan said he was really good!

A Crafty Thanksgiving

I'm a little behind on my postings! We've had a busy Thanksgiving season full of crafts and family and shopping. Jack and I have been doing a lot of crafts lately, some to make cute things and others just to practice different skills like cutting and gluing. Jack loves to cut strips of paper into smaller pieces and I finally figured out how to use all those scraps. I let him practicing gluing for the first time and he did a great job gluing his scraps onto a paper plate in an abstract design. We also had a craft night with Kyle and Nicole. The boys helped make a centerpiece for our Thanksgiving table and place cards too. I made the yarn ball turkey with hopes that perhaps it could be used year after year. Then the boys decorated feathers for the turkey and told us what they were thankful for. My favorite when Kyle blurted out that he was thankful for roller coasters. The boys loved using the glitter paint I had found. They also helped make the pilgrim hats that we used for place cards. I put glue on a paper plate and they dipped their cup into the glue then put it on a paper circle. They thought that was a lot of fun too. They did a really good job with the crafts. Now I'll have to figure out something fun to do for Christmas.

Monday Pictures-Week 19

We've had such a busy week I'm trying to remember what's new with the twins in their 19th week. Their night sleeping was so great this past week. Eating at 8 and going right to bed, then not up again until 5. Of course with everything going on over the weekend that has gone out the window and Logan is back to getting up several times a night for some reason. I'll be grateful when a good night's sleep is something I can count on, not just something that might happen. Logan started rolling over from his back to his tummy this week. He actually has done this before just very rarely and never when anyone was watching. But as of Tuesday he rolls over frequently and has pretty much joined Schaeffer in being a tummy sleeper. Schaeffer is actually becoming someone mobile. He started doing this schooching thing this past week. He gets his belly off the ground and puts his head down and pushes himself forward. For his age it's pretty impressive and makes me wonder if crawling is coming sooner than I'd thought. I guess we'll see. For now I don't have a picture of the boys together. The ones I took didn't turn out. So I'll try again tonight and hopefully add to my post.

Monday Pictures-Week 18

Look at these boys. They are getting so big and so full of personality. Although I guess "big" is a relative term. My boys are actually quite small. In fact, smaller than I had hoped they were. We had their 4 month check up this morning and while going in I had no doubts that they had grown so much, the scale told a different story. Surprisingly, Schaeffer and Logan both weigh less than Jack did at this age. Jack was 10 pounds 11 ounces and I'm sure we were so excited when we saw those numbers for Jack. Today Schaeffer was 10 pounds 10.5 ounces and Logan was 10 pounds 5.5 ounces. And I was so surprised they weren't bigger. I hadn't even considered that they might be smaller than Jack. They seem so much bigger to me. So while there is nothing to be concerned about I found myself sad. As their sole source of nourishment I feel like I must be letting them down in some way because if I were doing my job they would be bigger. But I know that I am doing my best and they are growing and thriving in so many ways. They are both so strong, just like their big brother. Apparently we just make skinny, little babies who happen to be incredibly strong and completely adorable. 

My Mushy Brain

I am so frustrated with myself. Somehow my dates and days have gotten really messed up in my head for this  week. I thought today was the 19th but turns out that is tomorrow. Also turns out that the boys vaccinations are on the 19th. Since I thought today was the 19th and vaccinations have always been on Thursdays, I was sure today was shot day. So sure, in fact, that after feeding the twins this morning I rushed to get everyone out the door so we could get to the health department pronto. As soon as I pulled in the parking lot I started wondering if I was confused. The lot just didn't seem as full as normal. So I called the health department and sure enough this month their clinic got moved to Friday (the 19th). Doh! Means I have to do it all again tomorrow. At least I had their phone number so I didn't have to unload everyone to go in and find out I was confused. So frustrating! I hate not being on top of things mentally. In my previous life as a non-mom I would have known exactly what day to be somewhere and I would have been there 20 minutes early. Now I'm lucky to get anywhere on time and apparently lucky to get anywhere on the right day.

Two Feathered Friend

For a while now I've been thinking that I need to do more structured activities with Jack. So I've been gathering supplies and ideas to begin doing crafts. I even started a new blog as a place to store any good idea I come across. That way I'll have a collection to "flip" through whenever I need a good idea. When Amanda said she and the kids were coming up for the day I thought it would be a great time to do our first craft. We made ourselves come very cute turkeys. I had such a hard time letting the kids to the work! I kept wanting to step in and help Jack so that it would turn out cute. My perfectionist tendencies really have to be kept in check with kids crafts and it is hard! I tried to let Jack make his own feathers but his disinterest was frustrating so I helped a little. And while I wanted to make some extra feathers to "fill in" his nearly featherless bird, I refrained. (I know I could have made some really spectacular feathers.) It was also difficult to hand over the blue crayon when he was supposed to be coloring the turkey brown. I suppose he was just being creative. Overall the kids did a great job and the turkeys look super cute. Jack enjoyed the gluing part of the craft and the coloring. When I told them I wanted to take their picture they were more than willing to show off their handiwork for the camera.