belated happy halloween

happy halloween!!

...10 days ago. oh well, that's how things roll around the jeffs household. (our pumpkins may or may not still be out on our front porch.)

we took austin and reagan trick-or-treating with their cousins katelynn and curtis and they LOVED it. at least the "action" of doing it. i don't think they understood the knocking-on-the-door-asking-for-candy part, but reagan sure enjoyed running reckless through the streets. she did NOT want to be picked up or go home.

we dressed them up as pac man and pinky and i think the costumes turned out rather well. i'm pretty sure i spent quadruple the amount of time making them (with denise - thanks!) as they did wearing them. oh well, at least we got pictures. at this stage in life, that's all that matters. it's documented.

this first picture is trick-or-treating at grandpa's law office. he had candy and cookies waiting for them. :) and i promise my son smiles in real life. for some reason he won't smile for pictures. we had family pictures taken about a month ago and he is straight-faced in about every. single. one. *sigh*

"official" halloween pictures. it's funny to me that one of the best ones we have is of the back of them. go figure.

austin watching for trucks - his favorite thing i the whole wide world.

we hope you had a great halloween, too!

hats and belts

HATS
austin loves, loves, loves hats. he has some of his own, but he also loves to play with dad's.

he thinks it's hilarious to cover his face and walk around. he does this with towels, blankets, hats, etc. i'm happy to report that he hasn't run into anything too serious yet - no injuries to speak of. *knockonwood*

trying to share with reagan (who, yes, is brushing her teeth).

BELTS
later that same day, tyler was giving reagan a piggy back up the stairs so that we could get the kids ready for bed. it's kind of hard to see in these pictures, but reagan was using tyler's belt to "stand up" while he was giving her the piggy back. her little toes are digging in between his back and his belt. so funny!

recent picture

i realize (again and again) that i don't take enough pictures of my kids. i think for the entire month of september i took three. seriously. anyways, i'm trying to take more, but it's hard when they don't hold still or they want the camera.

this is the most recent picture i have on the computer of the twins together. nevermind my dirty and half-put together house. can you believe how big they're getting? they'll be 2 in january!

we're still only 2/3 unpacked so once we're more settled and i pull all the pictures together, i'll post more of this double trouble!

we're back! ...again

the kids are asleep.

tyler's at home depot.

i find myself sitting on the computer, trying to think of "fun" things to do with my free time. (why do i think i have to spend my "free" time on the computer? denise, you better finish that book fast!) i ended up on my blog, looking back at some of the blog posts that i did. i REALLY need to start blogging again because it was a great way to document my kids' lives. it's harder to get pictures and videos of them now, especially since they think my iphone or camera is their iphone or camera, but the effort is so worth the outcome.

i've decided to un-privatize this blog. at least for the time being. if i find that weird unknown people from russia, etc., are reading my blog again, then it will have to go private. but i hate to do that, so let's try and see what happens.

i'd post pictures but i really don't have anything to post right yet. i'll get on taking pictures of our new house and of my kids.

until then, good night! :)

snacks

my sister wanted me to do a post on foods i feed my kids so that she can get ideas and so that you can share your ideas with us...so help!

what do you feed your babies (9-18 months)? it can be your children, your grandchildren, kids you babysit, nieces, nephews, etc. etc. please help me (and my sister) add to this list; i feel like my poor kids eat the same thing all the time.

i guess i should point out that my kids rarely let me feed them. they like to feed themselves.

they WILL eat
blueberries
grapes
apples
pears
bananas
carrots
green beans
broccoli
hot dogs
sausage
ground beef
chicken
pork
quesadillas
cheese
yogurt
pudding
crackers
milk
juice
freeze-dried snacks
corn
peas
bread/rolls

pineapple
watermelon
olives
pickles
raisins
craisins
fruit leather
fruit snacks
chocolate chips
cereal
vanilla wafers
graham crackers
jello
popcorn

they will NOT eat
strawberries
beets
sweet potatoes
pasta pick-ups

and that's all i can think of at the moment. i would love more ideas! :)

oldies but goodies

i think i may have posted these pictures of the twins already (my mom brain can't remember for sure), but they're just so gosh-darn cute that i had to share them again! i love their faces.

this was back when tummy time was the big thing going on 'round these parts. (these were taken in may of 2012.) now i'm chasing two toddlers around. yup - that's right! reagan is now walking, which means i have to walking toddlers. time for backpack leashes? maybe so. :)

happy birthday, brynn!

brynn would have been 2 years old today. i can't believe it's already been that long (a little over 2 years) since she briefly joined our family.

i usually plant flowers for her in the spring, around her due date, but it's been entirely too cold to go out and do it. we'll do it soon enough. and, when we move into our new house, we intend to plant a tree for her - something a little more lasting. :)

kix

i don't know what it is about my kids and food, but the fun never ends.

i particularly like how reagan tries to put the kix in her toes and how austin puts the kix back just to dump them out again. :)

mac n' cheese

if we don't like something, we put it on our head. naturally.

i don't know who started this because i wasn't in the room when it started. (i've found that sometimes the twins will eat better if i'm not sitting there. silly, i know. it's almost like they won't try something new or something they don't like if i'm in the room. or eat, period. so fun. don't worry, i'm never far away, just enough that they can't see me and get distracted.) i do know that my kids are very into copying other people. lucky me. i guess that's what having a twin sibling is for!

funny note: reagan got mad when she ran out of macaroni to put on her head. i gave her more and let them finish having their fun, then it was straight to the bath! i have a video of this blessed event. i'll have to put it on the computer and post it for you at a later date.

it's (getting more) official

tyler and i like to drive out to our home site to check it out, just for fun. nothing's happened yet. it's still just a piece of dirt, except now there are construction materials from our next door neighbors all over. it's fun to see our neighbors' house go up because they're building the same floor plan we are. we're excited to see ours start!

and it will, soon enough.

when we drove out to the site a week or two ago, we saw a pleasant surpise.

see what the sign says? SOLD! oh yeah! sold to us!

so technically we signed to purchase the house back on march 6. i know, forever ago. construction on our house couldn't start, however, until we had our "design center" appointment, which we finally had today. six hours later we have flooring, paint, appliances, doors, baseboards, railing, counter tops, etc. picked out. the design center appointment was so much fun but also so exhausting. it will be fun to see everything put together in our finished house!

tired baby

this is what happens when we refuse to take our morning nap. lunchtime sleepies.

sooooo tired. (it almost looks like she's faking or playing a game by closing her eyes, doesn't it?)

and conk.

i'm still trying to figure out if the twins are ready for one nap. so far, i'm thinking no. they miss (well, rather, refuse) a nap here and there, but mostly they sleep for about an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. two naps is nice, but i'm thinking one (hopefully long) nap sounds even better. :)

poop

i hate poop.

don't worry, i won't post a picture.

but here is why i hate poop:

1) i get to change two babies' worth of poopy diapers. and each of my kids poops at least 3 times a day, if not more. i fill my diaper genie faster than any family should have to.

2) poop wakes reagan up. i'm not sure exactly how...i don't know if the action of pooping wakes her up or if having poop in her diaper wakes her up. either way, it wakes her up and it drives me NUTS. it will wake her up even if she's only been asleep for 20 minutes. not cool. i dread putting her down for a nap when she hasn't pooped yet.

3) fruit makes poop yucky. but i like to feed my kids as much fruit (and veggies) as they will eat, so i guess this one's my fault. i take the blame for this one. sacrifice for health, no?

4) some poop is very ... tenacious? sticky? holds on for dear life? wiping the bump of a squirming, screaming 15-month old while trying to get all the poop off is a magic trick. austin particularly likes to squeeze his legs together and bounce. oh. the. humanity.

5) it leaks. i think fruit's to blame for this one, and thus me, but ugh. austin or reagan will go through 3 outfits a day on a bad day. which means i get to do more laundry because we only have so many clothes. nothing is worse than picking up a baby and feeling wetness on your arm.

6) smell. whew-ee. tyler has gagged/almost thrown up changing a poopy diaper. i can't say the same, but they can be p-o-t-e-n-t. like, you can smell them in the next room.

...ok, i think you get the point. poop = not fun. double poop = double not fun.

wanna know how i came up with this idea? i'm pooped! in the tired way. hahahaha. as i sat down to blog, i thought "i don't want to do this, i'm so pooped. hey, wait a second, i'll blog about poop!"

so there you have it, folks. a blog about poop from a pooped momma.

his mother's son

i checked on a napping austin the other day to find him sleeping like this:

it warmed my heart because that is how i sleep! i love to get all wrapped up in my blankets when i sleep (which is quite opposite of tyler, who likes his sheets neatly tucked in and straight).

a nice little seat

austin and reagan thought a hunt's snack pack pudding box would be the perfect little seat. looks like it is the perfect size for my twinners.

p.s. do you like austin's goose egg? first of many, i'm sure. :) it looks aaaaaawesome right now. hah!

the kitchen sink

or the bathroom sink, whichever.

both are great places to take a bath when we're not at home to do it! (and a bathtub is not available or the best option.)

usually i bathe the kids one at a time in the smaller portion of my mother-in-law's sink, but we thought it would be fun to stick austin and reagan in the bigger portion together. it was still a tight squeeze, but at least we got our bath in.

and don't worry - i always clean the sink before i go stickin' my kiddos in it. :)

choo choo

tyler and i have been wanting to take the kids for a train ride ever since frontrunner opened up in december of last year. we had planned to take them on the free-fare day back in december before frontrunner was officially open, but we drove up to the station to find a HUMONGOUS line and a wait of 1-1.5 hours. not a great idea with twins, so we put our plans on hold.

we got our opportunity to go for a ride yesterday. tyler had to go up to work for just a little bit, so we packed up the kids and headed to slc on frontrunner. the ride itself was really fun...but tyler and i failed to check for events going on in slc last night...like young yomens' conference and the jazz game. oops. :) we had a cozy ride up to slc, that's for sure!

once we got there, we went to tyler's office, walked around city creek, and ate a quick dinner. then it was time to head back to the train and come home!

here are some pictures of the twins on the train. actually, scratch that. these are all the pictures i took on the train. hahaha.

i've got it...

waaaaaay more together than i give myself credit for.

whew-wee, do i ever.

i met a mom of 15 month-old twin boys at the park today who changed my life. why? because she helped me realized i'm doing pretty good as a mom of multiples! (being a little dramatic, maybe? well, it's okay. it's just a blog.)

i don't know why it took meeting her for me to realize this, especially since everyone tells me i handle twins well, but man did i sure need it. she was talking to me about all the things that stress her out, or the things she can't do with twins (and another, older child), or how hard this or that is.

now, don't get me wrong, kids (multiples or not) are HARD. and i am NOT claiming to be perfect. of course i could improve in many aspects of being a mother...

but as i sat there listening to her talk about her stresses/hardships, i kept thinking about my twins and realized "well, that's not so bad," or "i do that by myself and it seems to work out okay," or "i started doing that on my own a while ago," etc., etc.

so today, i give myself a pat on the back. and i feel pretty darn good about it!

along these same lines, my mother-in-law has mentioned lately how she's surprised by how well i handle things with my kiddos. those of you that know me well know that i can be a little OCD, but having twins has helped me to reeeeeeeeally overcome that - at least in some aspects of my life. things the twins do that you'd think would bother me, i'm completely a-okay with. i suppose it's a forced over-coming, but a necessary one, too. i don't have time to sweat the little things with two toddlers tearing my house apart. i just make sure they don't put anything in their mouth they shouldn't, i baby-proofed the appropriate stuff, and i let the rest go.

filthy clothes from crawling around in the bark at the park? no biggie.

everything pulled out of drawers and cupboards in my house? at least the kiddos are happy and exploring.

milk or juice on the ground from a leaky sippy cup? it'll clean up.

unrolling and tearing the entire roll paper towels? a great excuse to use them to clean the windows.

board books bitten to shreds? at least the kids are learning to love books.

etc. etc.

we're still alive and that's all that matters!

i want to end by sharing a "story" i read on a friend's blog. she got the story from facebook. i loved it. maybe that's why today was so momentous for me; i had this story in the back of my mind.

Sometimes I think Facebook is the worst thing to have happened to a mom. Well, Facebook and smart phones.

Think about it. Because of these two inventions, you can now get a look at the life of every mom you call "friend." AND it's all delivered instantly right to your phone. Now moms have a front-row seat to all the cookie-baking and paint projects and plenty of time to judge their own mothering skills against such. We see the handmade paper chains decorating the Christmas tree across town, and suddenly our own Target ornaments seem way too trite. The next thing you know, we're freaked out that our own kids are going to become resentful of the handmade-ornament kids, join a ornament-hating gang, rob a Hallmark store and end up in jail serving 5 to 10. So Target mom says to ornament mom, "Why can't you just take it down a notch????"

But it goes the other way, too. Ornament mom looks at Target mom with raised eyebrow and says, "Can't you up your game just a bit?"

Ouch. How did we get here? Facebook? Smart phones? Maybe.

Before our lives became so easily promoted and quickly communicated, we were all in our homes doing our own thing. Coloring ornaments or opening a box. Baking cookies or opening a box. Doing life handmade or opening a box. And nobody knew, and really nobody cared. Because we were all making it work best way we knew how. Our kids were loved, and that was all that mattered.

Until we saw the way SHE was doing it. In color Instagram photos splashed across her timeline. And suddenly, what was right for us became less than. Or what was right for us became right for everyone. So our days become full of self-deprecating or self-righteous status updates as we search for some sort of validation -- something, ANYTHING -- to let us know we're doing ok.

Wait -- maybe that's it. Maybe I have it wrong. Could it be that social media and technology have just given voice to what we mommas have wondered all along --- am I a good enough??? Well, I'm here to tell you the answer to that question. Yes, you are. You're a good mom. Better, you're a rockstar mom.

How do I know? Because I know you.

Yes, you.

The one who feels guilty for going through the drive-thru for the third time this week. And you, the one who makes sure there are vegetables at every meal. And you, the one who buys birthday treats at the grocery store on the way to school. And you, the one who stays up literally all night decorating birthday cookies. You for whom the words "art project" mean markers (on a good day) and a coloring book. And you, the Pinterest addict whose kids are always covered in paint.

You are an amazing mother.

You're crafty. You hate playdough. You serve chicken nuggets. You raise chickens. You read every food label. You serve artificially flavored and colored cereal for breakfast. You homeschool. You public school. You have spotless floors. You are trying even now to remember the last time you mopped. You work. You stay at home. You make beds. You make messes. You turn on Dora. You don't own a television. You make stuff. You buy stuff.

You live in big houses and little house with lots of kids or one kid with dogs and cats and wooden toys and noisy toys and candy and fruit, and you drive mini vans and SUVs while wearing snot-stained sweats or wedge heels and you do it absolutely beautifully, and your children adore you because you were made to be their mom.

Yes, you. No one can do this thing better than you. Fight for that. Contend for it. Remember it on your worst days and your best days. And when you see HER doing her thing, high-five her. Thumbs-up her. (Because, trust me, she needs that today.) And when you give her props, do it without losing yourself. Without doubting yourself.

No one can do this better than you. No one.

So go ahead and post your picture of your kids eating hand-ground, organic beef burgers. And you post yours of your kids opening their Happy Meals. And I pledge to look (with non-judgmental eyes) beyond the food to see the sweet, little face in the background.

And I promise I will smile and think, "That kid has an awesome mom."

-Jai Wallace Tracy

it starts young

can you see what austin and reagan are playing with?

oh yes, you're right - my wallet. and, more specifically, my credit/debit cards. they love to pick my wallet apart and play with the fun "toys" it contains. i'm a little worried because i didn't show them how to do this...

i'm now counting down the days until they ask if they can borrow one. :)

home sweet home

i'm terribly sorry that i missed blogging on saturday night. we've had a stressful couple of weeks. as such, i've decided that being a grown-up is hard. i take back all those times i wanted to grow up when i was little. i'd rather go back and not have a thing in the world to worry about. being a mommy and a wife and working and buying a house and having a working spouse and twins and the weather playing cruel tricks on us (very warm then snowing!!) etc. and etc. can be stressful!

ok. stress relieving done. (though i'm noticing that most of things i mentioned are not going away any time soon, if at all...)

:)

on a happier note, we're BUILDING A HOUSE! wahoo!! we love it already and it's not even started. :) the house will be in vineyard, which is essentially orem but all the way west to the lake. the closest "landmark" is the sleepy ridge golf course, though our house is not on the golf course but north of it. we're not scheduled to close until september or october, which is fine with us. it gives us more time to save for things like furniture, since practically none of the furniture we currently use is ours. :D

tyler and i took the kids out to our site last weekend and snapped some pictures.

sorry guys, this lot is no longer "available." tyler and the kiddos standing in front of our lot. our house will be south-facing,

 

with the lake to the west,

and the mountains to the east.

the mound of dirt behind tyler is courtesy of the neighbor's house, which is currently being built. luckily for us, we'll be the last home built in the cul-de-sac, so we get to create construction dust...and be affected by none of it. :)

the development we're building in butts up right to utah lake, so we're really close. it's pretty cool. there's a trail that runs along the lake and we're fairly close to the lindon harbor.

so there you have it. we'll keep you updated on it's progress! keep your fingers crossed for us that everything will continue to go well and run smoothly.

great in 8 AGAIN

ok...i know you've heard me talk about this a lot, but too bad. i love it, and i believe in it.

it's almost great in 8 time again!

the last round was AWESOME. about 92 people lost almost 900 pounds and 650 inches. i personally lost 11.5 pounds and 10 inches. need i say more to convince you to do it with us?

the program is totally doable. and i have plenty of people who will back me up on this. it WILL help you lose weight (if that is your goal) if you follow the guidelines of the program. and you WILL feel better. i suppose i should use the program's correct title and call it "feel great in 8."

we're starting another round on april 1 and registration is due no later than march 30 at midnight. get a hold of me if you're interested in joining! :)