Just catching up a little......

Time is a funny thing.......it gets away so quickly sometimes. Yesterday I was sitting on the couch with my feet up when I noticed my toes. I thought, "Man, that pedicure sure didn't last long"......then I realized I had them done right before the twins were born......that was a month ago......and the reality was my pedicure had actually lasted a really long time.

Evenings can be tough around here.....the witching hour. The babies always seem to be fussier and Gage and Gracie are impatiently awaiting dinner. Matt doesn't get home until 6:30 so it's a mad rush to get in dinner, baths, brushing, and books all before bedtime. Sometimes that time of day is brutal.....I feel like I'm never going to get everything done and everyone down. I know every mom can relate to....



Most evenings around here are like that......I start longing for the 8pm bedtime to come. That time can seem never-ending yet the days and the weeks seem to fly by.

Last week I had my sister come to take some pictures of the big kids-yes, Gracie qualifies as a big kid. I also needed to measure my niece for the flower girl dress I'm sewing for her to wear in my cousin Valerie's wedding. I hadn't taken pics of my big kids for a while. Usually they would get done with Christmas cards but this year they didn't. Gage was horrible. He complained the whole time we were there.....about how he was going to get stung by a bee....and how Gracie was going to get stung.....and how he is terrible at smiling.....and how he couldn't wait to leave....and on and on. So when Amy posted these......






I couldn't believe we had gotten something I could actually put up in the house.

Gracie was pretty cute.....






This last picture is one that I wish was a video.....to see her run in that tutu was hilarious. She loved running away from us-she would have run all the way to the next orchard had we let her!

Looking at the pictures of Gage you can see the tooth fairy has been pretty busy around here. He lost his second front tooth last week. I was SHOCKED because Grandpa Steve had been here visiting....Gage asked him to pull it but Grandpa it wasn't ready. Then Matt pulled it that evening. Hmm.....I certainly remember Grandpa Steve pulling some of mine that I thought weren't ready. His next tooth to go was on the bottom and Matt said he didn't think it was ready to pull out.....during dinner that night Gage accidentally swallowed it!! Tooth fairy got the night off on that one.....no payment for teeth she can't collect!!

Anyway, the pictures turned out great and I'm looking forward to getting a picture with all four kids soon. I've been trying to take more pictures around the house of our daily life. Here are a few.....

I'm telling you-they love this....

Gage has been catching snails for a long time......

2013

2009

 Jay

 Ashlyn

Two babies in our bed.....

Look at these tiny toes.......

Gracie loves the Uncle Harry's iced tea almost as much as I do......

People are always asking how we're adjusting to having twins.....or what the hardest part of having twins is.....and I can honestly say we're adjusting just fine. It doesn't feel like "adjusting" though......it just feels like our life. There is a hardest part-and it's not the witching hour........it's getting out of the house. It seems to take forever to get everyone fed, cleaned up, dressed, packed and into the car. I feel like by the time I do all that-it's time to feed the babies again! Yesterday I realized that breakfast alone takes a big part of the day. By the time I made the big kids breakfast, ate breakfast and cleaned up after breakfast-well over an hour had passed. This is why I dread the question, "What did you guys do today?" from Matt. Umm.......we ate breakfast and lunch and everyone bathed. TA-DA!!

More on that in another post.....

Love

Bringing home babies......

The twins are three weeks old today. I can't believe it's been that long already. We've had many visitors and wonderful meals brought over. Between those and the freezer meals my mom prepared for us a few weeks before I delivered I haven't had to really cook dinner yet. To the many friends that brought us dinner-THANK YOU, that was such a blessing to our family.

The twins are still sleeping a lot so it's been pretty manageable so far. The only thing I haven't been able to do yet is venture out for errands with ALL the kids by myself. I've taken the twins and left the big kids and I've taken all four of them to run errands with help-but I've yet to head out alone with all of them except for walks and the park.  

It's been pretty funny to have people say they don't know how I do it. They see me out walking with my four kids.....one on a bike or scooter

one in a carrier

**I do not actually look this good-this is some miracle camera angle-it's like the power of Instagram, everything looks better

and two in the stroller.........

They just can't imagine it........but it's like Chrissy says here, "...you just do it because sometimes you just have to do what other people have no idea how you do because you just have no choice..." That's me. I'm just doing what I have to do and I don't even realize what I'm doing. My sister stopped by the other day and I was feeding the twins and helping Gage get ready for school. She said, "This is hilarious right now......you are nursing two babies at once and at the same time helping another brush his teeth." I wasn't really thinking about what I was doing-but when she pointed it out........I realized it was kind of crazy.  

But lets be honest-no one does it all. It's 1:15 and I'm still in my pajamas today....haven't even brushed my teeth yet. There is a basket of unfolded laundry that I've been eyeing all morning but have yet to get to. Gage's lunch was hurried because we were busy working on homework and in his rush out for school his dirty dishes were left-and are still on the kitchen table. Gracie's high chair is full of rice and broccoli from her lunch. She has been naked since I changed her diaper before breakfast this morning. There are toys ALL over the living room floor. Our beds aren't made. The counter is littered with thank you cards that I've started-but yet to finish and get in the mail. Must be a growth spurt because I feel like I've done nothing but feed the babies all day and they're still not all that happy. 

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That was all written yesterday......I didn't get to finish but now I will......

The hard parts are probably not what you would think. For one, I have help. I have a fabulous girl that comes and helps me run errands, make lunches, entertain the big kids, or whatever else I might need. The last few weeks of the pregnancy she came to watch the kids for my frequent appointments and would take the kids out to the park for me since I just didn't have the energy. I didn't want them cooped up in the house just because I was. She does the same thing now-she takes the kids to the park for me when I have to focus on the twins. She's here to help but it's hard for me........it makes me miss the big kids.

Gracie is still just a baby......

And when someone else prepares her lunch, takes her to the park, or lays her down for her nap-I don't like it. I miss her and I feel like someone else is being her mom.  

So then I take them to the park by myself-because I want to be with them. Then Gracie climbs by herself up to the big slide (where she is NOT big enough to go alone) and I realize why I need help. I can only do so much while carrying a tiny baby on my chest. 

Another hard part......when I got pregnant I never thought it would be my last pregnancy, or last baby....until we learned there were two. Some will find this CRAZY but when I snuggle my tiny babies I'm sad that I have to split my attention. It almost makes me want one more......one that gets to be THE tiny baby. Some mamas don't love the tiny baby phase-I do.....so I wish I didn't have to split time between my two. 

Gage has been a great big brother. He asks to hold them every day (Jay more often than Ashlyn) and tries to comfort them by giving them pacifiers or singing lullabies when they cry. He keeps Gracie entertained and helps with grabbing a clean diaper, tossing a dirty, or anything else they might need.  

He loves doing this-he turns laundry baskets into recliners. Gracie loves it.

 

The babies are growing like weeds......

Resting with brother....

 Blowing bubbles......

Napping after dinner.....

I spend a lot of time holding them together like this.....

but I don't really look that good-it's the angle and poor lighting. I WISH my hair was that color-but I'm actually in desperate need of an appointment with Carrie. 

I still can't believe I have four kids.....and that I'm a mother of twins. At the same time, I can't imagine life without them-they are my most precious treasures. My mom asked me how I was feeling........and I replied, "I feel like I've got this". She said that after coming by earlier this week, Amy described me as happy........I am.

Love

Children can be so perceptive........

Today I had to explain to Gage that his Grumps had passed away. Grumps was a grandfather (not by any blood relation but by spirit and love) to Gage. He cried and said, "I didn't get to say goodbye. We haven't seen him in a while and I didn't get to say goodbye to him. I want to see him." We cried together and I explained that the good news was that Grumps had been hurting for a long time and he would no longer have to live in pain. 

A few hours later Gage and I were on the couch, I had my arm around him, and he was reading his book from school to me. Grumps crossed my mind.........and I kissed Gage on his head. He stopped reading and when I looked down his eyes were welling up with tears.......he said, "Mom, when you kiss me like that it makes me sad about Grumps." It was as if he knew that's the reason I was kissing him......the perceptiveness of children never ceases to amaze me........

Love

Ashlyn and Jay's Birth Story....Part 2

I'm sure most readers know-but for anyone that didn't-we waited to name the twins until we saw them. We did the same with Gracie (partly because we waited to find out gender) and after seeing her I was so glad we waited-the name I would have chosen wouldn't have fit her at all. So the twins were nameless coming into the world. 

Visitors came the evening they were born.....our parents along with Jeff, Hally and Lauren. We didn't get to start talking names as we didn't have time alone. 

Here was our baby girl.......

 And our baby boy.......

We were moved over to recovery and luckily I didn't have a room mate so Matt was able to sleep there with us. There were nurses in and out the whole night......to check vitals, offer up pain medication and so on. In addition the bed was constantly moving and making noise. St. Agnes has new beds that move slightly on their own every so often for patients that are bedridden, I assume to help with circulation. There is no way to stop the moving unless you completely unplug the bed......it's crazy. 

Every nurse that would come in would say......"I see that you had a vaginal delivery-that's amazing!" Followed by, "And you're still in tact! Wow-you're Superwoman, made to have babies!" It was a wonderful compliment but I was exhausted, could hardly walk from the pain in my hips, and certainly didn't FEEL "super" anything. 

The next morning was more of the same except in addition to nurses we had the birth certificate lady that we had to put off because we still didn't have names, the lactation consultant, the picture people, and more visitors. Still no time to name the babies. Every one that came in would ask their names......I kept thinking, "If you people would stop coming in we could figure it out!!"

Gage and Gracie both came to the hospital to see the babies. Gracie ran to one bassinet, pointed and said, "Baby!", then she ran over to the other bassinet, "Baby!" A nurse came in to take one of the babies for the hearing test and Gracie grabbed a hold of the other bassinet and started wheeling it out behind her. Gage was anxious to learn their names but he had to wait. He asked to hold them and he did. He was excited that they were finally here but after getting a chance to see them, and make sure I was okay, he was even more anxious to visit the piglets at the farm. 

Late in the day we finally had time alone to work on their names. Our boy name list was about twenty names deep and needed some serious work toward reduction. We had already decided his first name would be William (after Matt's dad) and that he would go by whatever middle name we chose. The girl list was already narrowed to three (but no middle name chosen) so we started by narrowing the boys. We decided to take the list, mark eleven names each that we were willing to get rid of and any that we both marked would be removed. There were several rounds of reducing the list as often we only had one or two names that we both marked. If you ever go through this-the key is to must mark enough that you'll be forced to have at least one that you've both marked. When we got down to three names for the boy we decided to look up what each name meant and go from there. Of our final boy names one had no meaning, one meant "strength of the spear" and Jay meant "happy and/or rejoice". Based on that-the name Jay was chosen. Jay is a family name on my side-my grandpa Don's middle name (see this post). 

Once Jay had been named it was time to name our little girl. We both liked all three names so any of them would have been fine. Our final names were Evelyn (Evi), Ashlyn, and Westyn-none of which had any significant meanings.....except Evelyn meant "desired" which I wasn't really wild about. I thought she looked like a Westyn, Matt thought she looked like Evelyn......and that's basically how she was named Ashlyn. Matt thought she should share a middle name with Gracie (the same one I share with my sister, mother, and grandmother). So William "Jay" Creighton and Ashlyn Laurae Creighton were finally named. 

Our many prayers (and YOURS) were fulfilled and we were able to quickly take home two beautiful, perfectly healthy babies. 

Love