Rainy Days...

Dear Reader,
Life has gone on and this blog...well...hasn't. I haven't quite felt myself for the past few months. Things got very crazy, not like they weren't before with the twins..but I've been a bit off. With it now being my favorite time of the year, I"m starting to feel my old self come creeping back. I've haven't even done any creative writing for almost two months now and that's a very long time for me. I've basically been very burned out with life. I never understood how much being a mother was going to require of me! Plus, I never realized until now how much alone time I required!!! I guess that's why I'm a mom of three and not six!!!
Updates with twins, They are now both potty trained!!! I can't tell you how happy that makes me! They are busy with school and soccer, but i think soccer is on its way out because they don't play unless i"m on the field with them. and that is quickly getting old!!!! Okay I don't know what I pushed but can't get rid of the UNDERLINE!!!

I'm still on the all might quest to move my family to Utah! Too bad my eternal companion is not on the same page, which is okay, because i am very lucky to live where I do!! (but still love utah the best!

My book "multiply and replenish has finally been sent in for review with a publisher! It takes a few months to get a response so we will see.

I'm loving the rain we've had all week. For some this weather makes them depressed for me it makes my soul light! Nothing better in this world then writing and listening to the pouring rain outside!

kristen

potty training is for the BIRDS!!!

Dear Readers,

So the thing about twins is that even though they were born at the same time, they learn to do things at different times. For awhile it was Syd who did things first. She held her head up first, crawled first and walked first. Paige just seemed to be content with letting her "older sister" do things first. However, now things has switched gears as Paige has been potty trained for months now and Syd could careless about sitting in a pile of poop!!! I've tried talking to her, reasoning with her, though that's a hard thing to do with a three year old. When I tell her how yucky it is to sit in poop she just laughs at me!

I'm not at all worried that she isn't going to get it, i"m just so sick of diapers!!! I wish she would hurry it up, but i also am careful not to push her as I now that could be a disaster! But oh i wish she would just get a little spark of competition and want to be like her sister. :)

Kristen

What was I smoking last weekend???

Dear Readers,

For the Memorial Day weekend Aaron took Tyler up to a BYU sports camp. Since I was going to be home alone with the girls for four days, I decided I needed to go somewhere. I rounded up my sisters , their kids and mine and we headed to Palm springs. It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation in the sun. I should have known better...

Things got off to a great start when we were packed and ready to go only 2o minutes behind schedule. Really no big deal. We grabbed the kids some treats and hopped on the freeway by 12:20 pm. The freeway was free and clear and I felt a little smug about how smart we were being for leaving early on a Friday so that we didn't hit any of the weekend traffic. Then suddenly the freeway stopped and I hear my sister Michelle say. " Oh, yeah they mentioned something on the radio about the freeway being backed up." okay" I think, no problem. We'll have a little traffic and then be on our merry way. Fifteen minutes later it was clear that we were in some serious trouble. I checked the mirrors and decided to break away from the pack and cross over the yellow cones into the fast track lane. I was desperate! I had a car full of kids!! Again I thought we might be in the clear. The fast track was moving...well...FAST. But to my horror I saw brake lights ahead. It didn't take me long to realize they had shut the whole freeway down and we were being diverted off the highway!
Once we made it off the highway, McKenzie AND my sister both needed potty breaks. It had now been forty five minutes since we had left and we were still only a few miles from my home. I pulled into a gas station, hopped out and dragged McKenzie with me. it seemed that everyone else who was caught in the traffic had decided to have a "potty break" too. I tell Michelle, "she is just going to have to go on the side of the road! I'm not waiting in this, we need to get going!"
However, after much talking , Michelle convinced me it was better to wait for the bathroom to open up.
With everyone 'empty", we drove off in the direction of the freeway on side streets hoping to pass whatever obstacle was on the freeway. Needless to say after 20 minutes of driving around in circles we realized that none of the side streets went through. We completely turned around and decided to get back on the freeway going the opposite direction and make a big loop to get back to where we needed to be. Again, everyone else had the same idea!!! By the time we had been in the car for two hours, my sister called it quits. "Lets just get off, go back to the house and leave later tonight." At first I didn't want too. I was already here and i wanted to keep going but the kids were starting to go out of control so I consented.
The kids spent the rest of the late afternoon swimming in the pool while the moms pouted over the fact we should have been laying out by a pool at a beautiful hotel. To break up the time, we took the kids out to dinner. Must give props to our waiter who was awesome and didn't even flinch when I grabbed his butt! (by mistake of course!) After dinner we received a call that the freeway had just opened and we needed to get on the immediately to beat the rush. I pushed the pedal to the metal and we took off. There was still some traffic which took up about another 1/2 but once we passed the crash site (overturned tanker) we were one our way.
The mood in the car became upbeat and we couldn't wait to get to our hotel room. Things went smooth for a while until McKenzie had to go to the bathroom AGAIN! I was in no way going to stop at a gas station so I pulled over to the side of the road. Which made my sister scream about how crazy I was to pull over on the 91 freeway to have my three year old pee!" Realizing i was being a little crazy I drove to a gas station.
Finally all was well and we were ready to have some fun! Once we pulled off the main highway towards Palm springs the excitement in the car grew, then McKenzie threw up all over Michelle!
Now my sister can not handle throw up. She gags like crazy! Me? I'm okay with it, it's better than poop and heaven knows I have had my share of both! So with Michelle dry heaving and McKenzie crying and covered in throw up, we finally pulled up to our hotel! To which Michelle exclaimed that there was NO WAY she was walking through the lobby, smelling like throw up and looking like h*ll at such a nice hotel.
It took a few minutes to clean everyone up and gather our stuff. As we filed into the lobby to check in I heard a woman say. "Wow, they have a lot of kids."
I felt like saying " Yes lady, we do! would you like to keep one for the weekend??
In the end it was a fun but very exhausting trip and I would do it all over again.... but next time ladies either we leave the kids at home or we hire some help!!!

Kristen

Cries of the children...

Dear Readers,

If I cried as much as my children do daily I would be an exhausted mess! I"ve often thought about keeping a log on how many times my kids cry...and i'm not just talking about my 2 year old twins. Today my son had a break down as well. I hide in my own closet probably once a month and have a good cry as well. It seems to release so much tension and often I feel better but kids seem to do it so automatically. I guess it comes from being unable to express themselves well. We as adults can tell someone off if we are upset, we can calm ourselves down when we are feeling out of control, we can verbalize hurt feelings when we need to. But all kids know to do is CRY!

I can't wait for the day when words are replaced with crying as the crying drives me out of my mind! Of course then maybe i'll long for the crying because my kids will be telling ME off!! Hahahaha

Kristen

universe and me still at Odds?

Dear Readers
This is how my last 12 hours went. 10pm- me bed (alone aaron out of town) 11pm McKenzie cries . She finally has caught the cold Maire has been dealing with the past few days. I get her back to sleep and drag myself back down to the couch (where I sleep when Aaron is gone, with my pepper spray I might add!) 12am- McKenzie crying again. I see what's the matter, give her some medicine and get her back to sleep. Again I drag myself down to the couch. 1am- more crying but this time I just listen until she stops...terrible mom! 3:30 am- again with the crying and again I listen until it stops but this time I have to get up because now my head is pounding and I'm so stuffed up that i can't breath. I caught the cold!
Finally, able to get some sleep until time to get son up for school. Things were then going well until I announced to the girls we needed to go to the store for more milk and medicine! All Heck broke loose. No one wanted to get dressed but McKenzie was the worst. She had me rolling around on the floor with her with my legs wrapped around her waist trying to keep her still so I could get her dress over her head. But that girl is freaky strong! Every time I got the dressed pulled over she somehow managed to get it off. Add to this that Maire thought I was hurting McKenzie who was screaming at the top of her lungs, started to hit with with any toy she could find crying for me to stop! It was madness I"m telling you! After ten minutes of this struggle, i grabbed my cell phone, ran to Tyler's bedroom and locked the door. I sent a 911 call to my neighbor who said she could come over so that I could run to the store.
Right after that call was placed guess who comes knocking on the bedroom door carrying her dress asking me to put it on??? Yep, my little devil McKenzie who then started to have a fit because now she couldn't go "bye bye"!
Ugh! i hate when my children are sick! Lord help me today!!!

kristen

THe universe doesn't seem to be happy unless I'm covered in blood!!

Dear Readers,
My poor little McKenzie has done it again! It seems that she is definitely going to be accident friendly. During lunch this afternoon I set both girls at the table to eat while I snuck in the living room to catch some scripture reading. Hadn't done it in the morning yet and i was feeling like my crazy day was only going to get worse unless i got the "spirit"! I was only three versus in when I hard the loud bang of a chair falling. i held my breath to see if a cry was going to follow...it did! Though it was more of a scream than a cry.
I ran to the kitchen to find McKenzie face down on the floor . I pick her up to find she has blood oozing from her mouth. Remember she is my bleeder. Once she starts it's hard to get her to stop! I grab a towel stick it in her mouth because now I'm getting blood on me. I check her front teeth to make sure they are still in tacked and the move on to other body parts to see if anything else it hurt.
With the outside checking out, I pull the towel from her mouth and try and find where all the blood is coming from, praying with all my heart that she hasn't bitten so far through her tongue that she will need stitches.
Of course she is very upset that I'm trying to look in her mouth. I have her drink a glass of water in an effort to clear the settling blood from her tongue so I can check the wound. As she drinks the cup fills up with a mixture of blood and water. YUCK! She takes on swallow and gags it right back up. I don't blame her! Finally I rush to the freezer for my old remedy for mouth sores, ICE CREAM! It takes up a few minutes but she finally finishes the ice cream and lets me take a peak at the damage.
The very back of her tongue show indents from her four back molars but nothing that won't heal on its own. Plus she has a pretty nasty bump on her chin! My poor girl! She has got to learn to be more careful" I tell her.
She promises she will !
We'll just see about that!
Kristen

Potty training!!

Dear Readers,

so potty training has officially started in our household. McKenzie has been ready for awhile but i have been putting it off not wanting to "deal" with the process. However, with summer approaching and a week on a houseboat coming our way...it's time to stop with the diapers. Marie is not so into it so I think I'll just concertate on McKenzie. She had only three accidents today and two of them were because I forgot to ask her if she needed to use the restroom. It seems that every forty-minutes she has to pee. I put a timer on to remind me but didn't hear it a couple of times :0. I can't wait until both girls are done with diapers. I remember with Tyler how wonderful it was to not have to change dirty diapers.

With the girls who poop (each) three times a day (6 poop diapers), it will sure make our house smell a lot better!!!

Kristen

Peaceful morning..

Dear Readers,
Today so far has been a smooth day. McKenzie stayed home from school sick while Marie headed off to school. I can't even put into words the world of difference it makes to just have one child at home at a time. There was NO screaming, NO fighting, or crying! McKenzie watched some cartoons while I exercised. then she played ever so nicely with her ponies while I wrote a little and picked up the house. She was a perfect angel!

However, now that Marie is home...the calmness is ending. It must be just as hard to be a twin as it is to be a mother of twins.

P.S I've officially started sewing! Already made two dresses (jumpers) for the girls! Having a sewing machine is so fun! Project Runway here I come!! :)

Kristen

Ever think "This is just crazy?"

Dear Readers,
Ever have one of those days where the kids are going wild, you stub your toe for the "hundredth" time that day, the dishes seem never to get done, the laundry looks like a monster trying to claw it's way out of the laundry room??? Do you ever just think "this whole motherhood deal is...well...just crazy?"
I've said it before and I'll say it again, it baffles my mind how i can love something so much that gives me anxiety, sleepless nights, migraines, weight gain,etc? How can I love something that just 'hurts' so bad sometimes? This was my thought today as I drove my screaming, crying, never seem to be happy in the car, children to the park for a play date.
As their screams got louder, I wondered why I wasn't just staying at home in my P.J's and having them watch movie after movie??
The answer is...I love them! I love this never ending , joyous, exhausting job of mine! Though there are day's i can't even see straight, and I feel like 'vomiting' from the stress of raising twin girls...i wouldn't have it any other way. REALLY, i wouldn't. I'd be missing out on so much joy if I didn't have my children, sure I'd have my hair and nails done all the time, and ever dime would go to my clothing but really... nail polish chips, clothing gets old and my hair...well that's another topic.
Motherhood is IT for me. Nothing will ever compare!

(just don't ask me how I feel about it around 7pm at night, my answer may be very, very different) :)

Kristen

Rain, sick kids and body aches make for a very LONG day!!

Dear Readers,
Still dealing with a very sick little girl. Marie has just been miserable. I feel so badly. As a mother you just want to take the sickness away. However, there is an upside when the girls are sick...they are quiet! I always know that one of them is about to get sick when they start laying on the couch and actually watching a whole program on t.V.

I myself am starting to feel those little signs of a sickness coming on. I had very little patience today and found myself doing a lot of "yoga" breathing today to calm myself down. It's just not right to lose your temper with a sick child!

Enjoyed the thunder and lightening we had this afternoon! I just can't get enough!

kristen

Your eggs are 90% gone by the age of 30!!!

Dear Readers,

So the newest study out on women's biological clock is that by the age of thirty, 90% of a woman's eggs are gone!! WOW!!! But there is no need to panic girls. You still have 10% percent to work with...and really it only takes one egg at a time. Now if you were thinking about being like the woman who has 19 children...maybe there should be some concern but for the rest of us I think this study is just another waste of energy.

I don't think this study is going to make anyone run out and get pregnant however, it may put having children more in the forefront for some. But lets face it, if you are an L.D.S woman like I am, we usually don't wait to have babies. (sometimes the Lord makes us wait) but majority of L.D.S women seem to be doing just fine past the age of thirty!!!

We make that ten percent work for us!!!

Kristen

Ever feel the need make some money???

Dear Reader,

Okay, so for awhile now I have been trying to find ways to make extra money. I thought about doing temp work again as a dental assistant one day a week, but then I'd have to find someone to watch the twins, then I tried eBay for awhile...uh...didn't work out. Then I moved on to amazon and sold used book, this actually worked well for a while but truth be told I ended up getting so busy that I ran out of time to properly do it!! Plus, the books that didn't sell drove my husband crazy! I might start doing it again but on a way lower scale. who knows.

Now I'm trying to do some freelance writing over the Internet. But before I can apply for the "real jobs" I have to write a certain amount of articles. This isn't too bad since I love to write and I'm actually learning stuff in the process. Like does anyone know what "national Sorry day is?? I DO NOW and last night I learned how to make lotion from goats milk!!! Who knew!!

I don't know why I have this urge to earn my "own" money, but I do, though my time is kinda tied up in this thing called "raising a family"!!! hahaha. I know my time with come to get out there and make some "real money". There is a season for everything right???

Kristen

I'm back!!!...Well almost

Dear Reader,
Okay so I finally got a computer to work with (mine is still down). I never realize how long it takes for a computer to get fixed! Anyhow, just got back from a wonderful ski trip to Utah with friends. The first day of skiing was a major challenge for me, in fact I quit mid-day and hung out in the lodge :) It was a great break from the kids, but they are just so darn cute when you see them after a few days . McKenzie had a lot to tell me about her weekend. I understood most of what she was saying. The excitement that crosses their face when your kids see you after a few days is priceless! It's the best part about going away.

Thankfully the girls were good to me today! though the teacher at school did say they got into a "smack down" with each other. We are still working on the whole fighting issue. Hopefully tomorrow is just as good as today.

Kristen