Brothers

Briggs is always looking at the camera and posing.

I can't believe how much bigger Sawyer is than Briggs.

Sawyer and his "straightjacket. We swaddle him tight with the pacifier when he won't calm down....gives us about 20 minutes of calm.

Briggs has the cutest facial expressions.

Dad is in charge of Dessert

Blue Bell was on sale...and Derrick was in charge of dessert. I wouldn't have been this creative ;) This is totally "Dad's" way of doing things. The icecream was almost gone so what is more fun than eating out of the container?

Mmmmm....Before the icecream

And after. Sugar-induced hyperactivity. Gotta love it.

Love the pacifiers

Pacifiers have never been my thing but I love that these guys will take them. Plus they look kinda cute with 'em. They sleep in their carseats because Sawyer has acid reflux and it just seems to help them sleep better for us.

Trapped!...in a good way

Sometimes the babies trap us and fall asleep....

Tony with Sawyer

Both of my boys...Sawyer is a better cuddler than Briggs(orange shirt)

I love this one

This was hard work. You can see both pacifiers strewn about, my water, and my cell phone. I'm here for awhile.

Out to the park

It is amazing to me how long it takes me to get somewhere. We went to the park this morning and it took a good 2 hours to get there. It was kinda chaotic trying to get everyone loaded and babies fed and bottles made...sunscreen applied, snacks grabbed, towels put in the car, and cold water brought.
I apologized to the older boys for being kinda crazy trying to get out of the house. After being at the park for an hour or so Tony said, "The craziness was worth coming to the park." I am glad :) It was a fun splash park that shoots water up out of the ground. The best kind of park to go to when it is over 110* outside.

Growing up

Turner holding Briggs. He looks happier with his pacifier.
Everyone loves "Mom's chair"

Tony holding Sawyer while I was finishing feeding Briggs.

Levi and Briggs bonding

My mom got these super cute outfits for the boys. See how much better it fits Sawyer? Briggs is drowning in it.

Levi loves to organize things. Maybe he will want to be a traffic cop or something.

It is amazing to me how much all my boys are growing. Tony and Turner have turned into such great helpers and are being so considerate of eachother. They have developed a closer relationship and can be found staying up late at night talking. Levi has grown up so much too. He is a great big brother and is the life of the party. He seems to steal anyone's heart that comes to visit.

Father's Day

As I was thinking about how blessed we are to have such a great Dad/husband, I was overwhelmed with the blessings that we have. Derrick is such a great dad to these boys and is so selfless in giving his time and energy to our family. He leads family home evening and has such great topics to discuss with our boys and trying to help them become great future dads themselves.

"My favorite thing about my dad is everything he has done. I loved it when he took us to Red Robin after the twins were born. We got free sundaes! It was great!" Tony

Turner's favorite thing about his dad is that "he makes awesome food that I like." I guess the way to a boy's heart is through his stomach :)

Levi is always so excited when Derrick comes home from work. Derrick and Levi are great buddies. They build puzzles, do cars, and Derrick is always ready to change diapers and help out where it is needed.

Sawyer and Briggs were unavailable for comment but I am sure their favorite thing about their dad is that he feeds them and changes their diapers...a lot.

Thanks babe! You are an awesome dad and I love you all the more for it!

Decisions...

I never thought that making decisions would be so difficult. A few days ago, I came across a really tricky one I thought I would share.
The twins just fell asleep and I was super tired. Take a nap or shower? It was a really difficult choice. The shower won.

Family pictures

After a long day at the pool, we got some family pictures taken.

Papa and G-ma with all five boys.

Riding a bike

Papa with Turner helping him learn.

An extra set of hands was very helpful in teaching Turner to ride his bike. Papa and G-ma took the boys down to the park while Derrick and I were on a much needed date. G-ma had gotten Turner some elbow pads, knee pads, and gloves. He learned really quick. It was really cool. We got home from our date...Tony and Turner were still awake playing Wii...and Turner had learned to ride his bike.





Go Turner Go!

Levi is our little dare devil. He loves to ride down this hill and will try and go as fast as humanly possible.

Fun at the Water Park

Levi hanging out with Dad while drying off a bit.
Turner loved going down these slides. It was fun.

Tony after going down the big water slides.

Tony doing some weird dance.

Cheese!

The babies slept pretty much most of the time. I actually went down both water slides also. It was a great time at the park.

We had a ton of fun with Derrick's parents when they were here. G-ma had the boys cleaning, hanging out at the park and doing some (or a lot) of Wii. It was great! It gave me a chance to get a little more sleep and I know the older boys had a lot of fun.

Fun pictures

Levi loves to hold his baby brothers
So...lots of bottles...every day! Sawyer is eating about 4 ounces per feeding and Briggs is at 3 ounces

Briggs loves his bath

Sawyer loves his baths too...

most of the time.

A Day in the Life Of...

I wanted to document how 1 day went with the babies when they were 1 month old...so I can look back and remember.

June 6th 2011

Derrick took the first shift so I could get some sleep. I went to sleep at 8:00 and he stayed up past midnight.
1:30am Briggs wakes up--Feed/change/burp him. Fell asleep for 30 min while trying to burp him.
2:45am Sawyer wakes up--Feed/change/burp
3:20am Start pumping
4:00am Lay down to fall asleep...pray that Briggs will go longer than his normal 3 hour stretch.
4:20am Briggs wakes up. Feed Briggs--Sawyer starts grunting
4:40am Too tired to put Briggs back in bed so I fall asleep with Briggs in my recliner.
5:15am Derrick gets up with Sawyer
6:00am Derrick puts both babies back to bed
6:15am I start pumping
6:30am Older boys wake up
6:45am Make pancake batter. Tony wanted to make pancakes again for breakfast :)
6:55am Feed Briggs/change him...he peed all over me
7:20am Ate awesome pancakes
7:30am Derrick left for work
7:40am Attempted to lay down
7:55am Sawyer wakes up to eat.
8:00am G-ma and boys cleaned up and went to the park
9:30am Pump...babies started crying so I had to stop, got milk warmed up/changed diapers
10:15am started pumping again. Called lactation specialist to help with ideas for milk supply
11:00am G-ma and boys got home
11:45am Pumped
12:00pm Went to Costco. G-ma stayed with all the boys. I needed a little break :)
1:45pm Got home and ate lunch
2:00pm Latched Sawyer and he nursed for 15 mins then he finished a bottle.
2:40pm Latched Briggs and he ate for 15 mins then finished a bottle.
3:30pm Layed down
4:30pm Tried to latch both Sawyer and Briggs--unsuccessful. I am really sore at this point.
5:00pm G-ma and I bottle fed the babies
5:30pm Derrick got home
6:00pm Ate dinner that G-ma made for us.
7:30pm Bottle fed the babies with Derrick
8:00pm Pumped
8:45pm Went to bed. Derrick stayed up for the first shift so I could get some sleep.
11:30pm Woke up to pump while Derrick was feeding the babies

This makes me tired just writing it all down. This is the exciting things we did on the babies' 1 month birthday.

Sleepy wrap!

I'd like to thank Cameo for turning me on to this Sleepywrap baby carrier. I had heard that you could wrap twins in it but I was a little nervous to try it out. Derrick's mom came in town and Sawyer was being pretty fussy so I put him in it. He settled right down and fell asleep. He absolutely loves it. Then Briggs started fussing a little bit. I had just watched how to wrap them on Youtube so thought I would give it a shot. They both fit and are so happy to be wrapped together. I am blogging wearing both twins and as I look down I see they are breathing in tandem. It is so awesome!

This is a great picture...except it looks like Sawyer is punching his brother in the nose...I wonder if this will be a recurring theme.

Fun Pictures

Briggs looking at Sawyer. Sawyer was so comfortable he loved laying on the pillow.
We kept talking about getting some cute pictures with Nana holding both babies but this was the only one we got of her holding Briggs. This is my chair set up. You can see the yellow pump (hospital one...I love it!), nice big chair, book, and water at arms reach.

I had to get a picture of my 5 boys...aren't they so handsome??

I love this one.

This picture is Tony's favorite. Briggs is totally posing and it looks like Sawyer is about to smack him :) So fun.

Levi loves his baby brothers. He often comes over and says "Its okay Briggs" or "Its okay Soy-ya". He loves to cheese it up for the camera...dirty face and all.