Party

The birthday party was perfect! Perfect little group of friends, cute babies, messy cakes and a warm pool. (Ok, the wind made it a little cold when wet, but hey, you can't have everything.) And sorry, I'm not sure why this video keeps uploading a little blurry. I'll try it again tomorrow, but you can still see it fine.

Ashton

Phoenix

Happy birthday little one year-olds!

It's been quite the year, and who thought I'd ever say it, but I actually love having twins. (Now, at least :). It's so fun to watch them interact with each other - following each other around the house, or crawling excitedly towards each other until they get face to face and don't know what to do next besides poke each other's eyes out. And it's fun (usually) watching Cash interact with them too. Our house is very lively and a bit crazy, but we're having a great time.

Here are some of the latest antics:

Morning routine: combined bed jumping, always insisted upon by Cash:







Diaper-clad bubble blowing on the balcony for the neighbors to enjoy:


Accompanied by some baby tickling:

The morning I decided not to buy any more blueberries for a while:


And in video form - many of the same you've already seen, along with waffles with strawberries and whip cream eating, going to physical therapy (can you see why they love it? Cash especially); the only quiet time in the house (movies), and their sweet dancing skills.




I may be in for it with these boys after having a mellow first child. Especially that little Phoenix. He even crinkles up his nose and snickers at you while he's being a trouble-maker.

Today we're going to have a little pool party for their birthday. Because how many places can you have a pool party in February?

Anyway, we're lucky we got two of you little boys.

Thought I'd pass it along....

So a few weeks ago when we were getting Ashton's helmet checked, the tech that was helping out came back in the room the second time and said, "You know - I looked at your babies before and thought - oh no. In my culture (I'm not sure what culture she was), if your baby has a double cowlick, it means your next baby will be twins. I would never have believed it, but my first baby had the double cowlick and my grandmother told me my next would be twins, and my next pregnancy was twin girls."

I can't really take old wives tales lightly since everyone and their dog knew that Cash was a boy (we didn't find out) from whatever old wives tales they used then. Someone asked me if that means our next will be quadruplets since we have two double cowlicks.

I'm thinking ours just got their old wives tales crossed and this means they are twins.


A close-up:


And I love that I got this picture of them hugging while trying to cross paths:


So yeah, check your kids before you think of having more. :)

Black tie

Ok guys. I just found out that in less than a month, Ryan has a black tie event - some fundraising gala with lots of rich people that we're going to. $450 a ticket. (Unless you're a poor resident, thankfully.) Even Leslie Nielsen (the guy from Airplane and stuff) is going to be there.

SO.

What on earth do I wear???

I'm very excited - it's my first black tie event. And really, how many of these do you get a chance to go to? (Ok, well this may happen every year we're here, which I only realized after I decided that I was ok spending some money to get a good dress with the excuse that I may never go to one again.) But when Ryan graduated from med school and we went to dinner at the Waldorf with his class, I went cheap. And looking back at the pictures now, even though I thought I looked cute at the time, I'm like eh. Not great. I should have spent more to get something that would have been a knockout dress.

So where do I find a dress? A cute one? That doesn't cost a million dollars but looks like it might? And (here comes the mood-kill) one that is modest? I was down in South Beach on Friday night and I swear I saw so much flesh. I don't understand how women aren't uncomfortable just letting it all hang out. Well, I am. You've probably noticed how notoriously modest LDS people (Mormons) are. It's true. And when we go to the temple we make covenants of modesty and chastity and fidelity among others. Which I am increasingly grateful for the more flesh I see. I can't imagine raising my boys down here! Yikes.

So, back to the question - what do I wear? I need some suggestions! I'd rather opt for a long dress than a cocktail dress - I think it's really that dressy. I love that the theme of the event is Old Hollywood. I think it would be so cool to dress all old Hollywood glam and do my hair and stuff that way too. Maybe some long black gloves. BUT. It's so hard to find anything, let alone try to be specific. So I don't know that I'm really going to find anything that fits that theme (I don't think they've been themes that people usually dress to anyway); and frankly, I'll just be happy if I can find something that doesn't come from the mother-of-the-bride section.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here are some little cherubs to further get you in the Valentine's spirit.

Phoenix, Ashton

I realized I'd better document this chub before they start growing out of it. I'm glad I got some good ones!

Festivities

Don't you wish you were at my
house for Valentine's Day?

Baby powder: cure-all

So apparently baby powder is the new duct tape. You know how I always profess my love for dry shampoos? Well, to tell the truth, I rarely actually have any, and out of laziness I just use baby powder because it happens to be around. Put some at the roots, work it in, brush it perhaps, and I'm done.

Then after my beach post, everyone tells me it's the best after the beach to get the sand off. Check. Got it in my beach bag for next time.

Well, back to my bug issue. I think there are tiny tiny ants all over. And some other tiny variety of bug/spider as well. I was discussing this issue with a friend the other day, and she remembered that once a friend of ours had ants so she put baby powder all over the floor, left it for a while, and apparently they went away.

Hey - that sounds easy enough. I'm totally down with trying something that I already have around anyway because how great would that be if it really worked and was just that simple?

Let me just say, this is now my least favorite of the baby powder remedies. I probably should have at least googled it to see what anyone else's experiences had been with it. But I didn't. I just decided to dump a bunch of baby powder all over the floor and some along the corners of the counters last night. This morning I wake up to a thin coating of baby powder...on everything. Every surface, every drying baby bottle, every everything is covered in baby powder. Because it didn't just go on the floor and sit there, it poofs up as it goes on, and any air blowing blows it up in the air again and then it settles down wherever.

UGH. So I'm in a bit of a panic trying to get it all up this morning before the babies get near it becuase I know it's really bad for them to breathe in the dust. So I try sweeping. Duh. More baby powder flying around the house. I try to vacuum it. It just keeps blowing out the back of the vacuum. So it became such a tedious process. Imagine having cornstarch or flour or something all over your house - just doesn't clean up so nicely. I wash down every little item covered in dust, the fronts of all the cupboards, counters, blah, blah, blah. (And our house is mostly just one big kitchen/dining room/living room, so it's not like it's one isolated area.) It takes forever. Meanwhile Cash is having a great time with this cool white stuff that makes funny patterns and tracks all over the house. I'm panicking a little because I've got to get to an appointment for a helmet check for Ashton, but I'm up to my knees in baby powder and can't get all the kids out and ready without getting them covered too until this mess is cleaned up. I keep trying to throw finger foods at the babies to keep them entertained and contained in their high chairs, but we're actually really low on food. I look in the cupboards and grab a can of pineapple and open it. Dang, I didn't notice it's crushed. Not such a great finger food. Find some peaches instead.

I finally get things cleaned up and just have to grab the kids still in their pjs and run. I throw on a hat, and grab the babies. Yuck. They're covered in peach mush and jam and whatever else from breakfast. Even mushed into their bums from sitting on it and squishing it around. Ugh. It will have to do. I grab some other clothes in case I get time to get them dressed later.

At least I'm feeling relieved and hopeful that the bug problem may be over.

So we get to the waiting room. There are quite a few people in there, and more coming in the longer we sit there. But when we first sat down I was so embarrassed at the look of my disheveled children (they didn't even have cute pjs on!), that I thought, well, I haven't had a spare second and I'm finally sitting, so I'm just going to change them here on my lap in the waiting room. I know - that's probably not really cool to be all hygenic in a waiting room, but it was just that kind of day. So I start changing them and pull a diaper out of my diaper bag because they are soaked to the brim. The diaper is full of ants. Aahhh! So now even my diaper bag that was sitting on the floor of my house has been infested?? Oh SICK. I'm trying not to show how much I'm freaking out or make a huge scene. So I try to pull out another diaper. Full of ants. And the third. I have no other diapers, and my kids are soaking, so here I am, in the waiting room, already turning it into my personal bathroom in front of everyone, and now I start picking ants out of the diapers I am then going to put on my babies. COULD IT GET ANY GROSSER????? Is there no shame??!?? OH. MY. GOSH.

So fast forward to when we get home, after the long drive in traffic, after getting chicken nuggets on the way (wow, you really do get so much more lax so much more quickly with subsequent children!) because I'm already mentally worn out and am sworn to NOT be cleaning up anymore this morning by making lunch. So I get home, and after a few minutes realize in my rush, I'd left the can of pineapple out. I never leave food out since this whole bug thing. I go to pick it up, and whoosh. Bugs go scattering in all directions. Tons of them. Auughhh!!!! So now I've spent an hour and a half cleaning up baby powder in the morning, I still have bugs, I have to now chase this batch down, and I remember I still have to go through all the deep dark crevices of my whole diaper bag to exterminate whatever is in there!! Really, I DO NOT have time for this! I am so NOT happy.

What a day.

I'll spare you the rest of the details, but I guess the moral of the story is I should just get a dang exterminator and save myself all this trouble. Strike one, baby powder.

We're lonely!

So I feel like I keep talking about my mom being here for three and a half weeks (and my sister for 1 week of that), but I would be remiss if I didn't once again mention the awesomeness of it. I really I wish upon all of you someone who will wake up early with your kids, cook every meal, do every load of laundry, help check off your to-do list, change diapers, play with your kids, and at the end of the day get just a couch to sleep on. And never complain. (I'm hoping that's a trait that comes with age? That and living off less sleep like she seems so much better than me at too?) Wow. I was so spoiled. I really have an amazing family. Thank heavens for retirement! Although, I must admit - I always am secretly like what's the big hype about retirement? You finally reach some milestone that means you're accomplished and then you just have to do it all over with grandkids? I really think I'm going to be some crotchety old lady who is like, "Heck no - I paid my dues! Take care of your own grubby kids!"

But I better not, huh? Thank heavens someone else I know doesn't feel that way.

And now I don't think I've sat down since they left. Oh yeah, this is what my real life is like. Even with three of us here I swear we were all still busy. One night Ryan was playing with the kids and a couple of us were cleaning up after dinner. I was like - yeah, this is the way to do it - someone with the kids, someone cleaning, someone putting stuff away... And Ryan said, "Well, we could always re-instate polygamy." I'll have to admit that was the first time I thought, hmm, maybe it wasn't all that bad....


We had a great time though. Miami really is a cool place and has a lot of great stuff to do. We took a millionaire's row cruise around Star Island and Miami Beach and some of the other islands. It was cool to see who all my "neighbors" are. So weird that a mile in one direction from my house and you've got people lined down the street for the soup kitchen, and a mile the other direction you've got a pad for Tom Cruise, Oprah, Shaquille O'neal and the like. The biggest house on the island though belongs to the guy who invented Viagra. I thought that was kind of funny.

I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that I can convince her to come back in May. Ryan is on call (in the hospital, overnight) 3 Saturdays that month. Then sleeping Sunday and back to work Monday. Yuck. One more push to help us through this year that is the worst would be awesome!

The best part of waking up...

Is a bowl full of bugs in your cereal.

Ok, no, it's not.

Let's hope tomorrow starts off better. I will be obsessing over the search and destroy mission until I find the source of this nuisance. Sheesh, I'm still trying to get back to remembering how to be a mom by myself since my mom and sister left - and now this? I could do without the invasion. And I promise I've been fanatically clean. There is nothing that I hate more than having bugs in my house.

Cruise

When it started raining FIVE minutes before we walked out the door to the cruise I must admit I was a bit bummed that the whole thing would be a wash out. It was raining and cold and windy when we took off, but then it got better. Saturday was quite windy and a little chilly, although mostly sunny, and Sunday was warm with a cool breeze. And when am I ever one to complain about being cool? Never. It was probably just perfect for me.






Waking up in the Bahamas.
















Atlantis really is impressive. Britney Spears was even staying in that middle section suite ($25,000 a night, 4 night minimum) while we were there.












































We somehow even ended up on the beach there even though you were supposed to pay to have beach access.
















Really cool aquariums.























































Towers with almost straight drop water slides inside (too cold for us to want to stay wet all day though so we didn't do it).

















The private island was nice, crystal clear waters, and of course I ended up a little crispy in places even though I thought I was under an umbrella.














Cruises are kind of funny things though I learned, since this was my first one. A little cheesy and all about getting you drunk so you'll spend lots of money on the boat. The cruise director was the kind that speaks in that television announcer voice who bobs his head with every phrase he says. The singers and dancers on the boat are obviously ones that can't make it elsewhere. But it actually makes it pretty entertaining, I must admit.

Most of all (next to being with the husband for our first childless trip since we've had kids) I just appreciated being able to sit down and eat a meal without standing up 15 times during dinner, and snarfing down my food inbetween feeding three other mouths. Funny the things you learn to appreciate, huh?