The Nativity

Here are some photos from our nativity program on Christmas Eve. We had a good time dressing up and reading the Christmas story from the scriptures. The kids enjoyed getting to be a part of the program as key characters. A reluctant baby Jesus! Guess we underestimated Gavin's size! Shepherds and a baby sheep with red fleece!
A posing Joseph!

A very excited Mary!

Samuel the Lamanite
and
Gabriel
Three wise men

I am an Aunt on Christmas Eve!

My sister Natalie had her baby this morning! Little Savannah Thornton was 7 lbs. 14 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long. I am so excited for those two! We are so relieved that everything went well. Maya has been really stressed about Natalie's baby dying, so we are extremely grateful that all is well! We will be going down there tomorrow to see her so I will post some pics later! *Update!* Here are some cute pictures of her! Look at all that cute hair!

Special Children on Christmas Eve

When we got up this morning, the kids asked me what we were doing today. One of the things on our list was going up to the cemetary and taking a tree to Dylan's grave. On Sunday the primary had the kids make a little treat of hershey kisses to give to someone they love this week. While at breakfast Maya asked, "Mom, would it be ok if I gave my treat to Dylan?" I of course told her that that would be very nice. I was really touched that she would think of her brother as a member of people that she loves. Kaitlyn asked a few questions about heaven so we talked a little about where Dylan was. Maya the said, "Don't worry mom, Jeus is there too and he loves Dylan, he will take care of him. And if he is too busy President Hinckley is there too, and I know he loves Dylan too." I have to thank God for children. They know so much more than we do about so many things. They just get it! I don't know what I would do without my Maya. She is so special. She will definitely be a rock that this family can lean on.
Since we have been talking more about Dylan and including him in things, the kids have been doing a lot better. The fears have started to fade. The other day I was talking to my mom about being worn out and she said it was because I had three children. Maya came in to the room and said, "No Lola, she has four children!" I am happy that she knows she and all the other children will always be loved and will always be a part of this family.
This picture of my "sitting" Gavin is sooooo precious!

A Huge Relief!

Brian's sister Shalee got married on Thursday. That means that everyone on my side of the family and Brian's side are married! If you have small children you totally get that an all day wedding is like a nightmare! Plus, I was really sick the day before and I still wasn't feeling very good the day of. We barely made it there because we drove up from Utah the morning of the wedding. The kids were quite well behaved and they all looked adorable in their red clothing. Gavin didn't like taking pictures as can be seen by his bottom lip stuck out. Everything worked out nicely though and we survived the day.
Daddy and Gavin!
It just makes things really nice all around now that everyone is married because no one is left out when we try to do couple things. We only have two other siblings with kids at the moment, so lots of kids still to come. Natalie is due any day now with her first, and my sister Lindsay is pregnant with her second. Things are moving along pretty nicely!
While we were there we got to spend time with family again. This picture is of Gavin and his second cousin Porter.
Porter is 3 days older than Gavin! Hopefully we continue to live close so they can be buds! Maya, Kaitlyn, and Porter's sister Macy are already good friends so it is fun for them to visit.

Happy Anniversary!

Wow! I can't believe Brian and I have been married for seven years! It definitely does not seem that long. I have known him for ten. When I think of all the things that we have been through together, I am reminded of how grateful I am for Brian. I don't think there is anyone else on this planet that could have been there for me like he has been, especially this year.
I look at our wedding pictures and think of how nieve we were. If I knew all the things that were going to happen to us as a couple and family would I still have said,'yes'? I definitely would have. I wouldn't trade all the incredibly wonderful times we have had together. I love that our anniversary is around Christmas. I just love Christmas! My Christmas wish is that everyone be as lucky in love as I have been. I found that perfect person for me. I am grateful everyday that I chose to go to USU against everyone's wishes, otherwise I may not have met him. It's weird to think back on those years and how simple we lived. Life used to be so easy! Sometimes I wish that my eyes were not so open to the reality of mortality. But, there is no other person that I would rather spend mortality and eternity with. I hope there are many more anniversarys to come!

Like Father Like Daughter?

Because Brian has Muscular Dystrophy he has a hard time bending over and then trying to get back up, so he usually picks things up off the floor with his feet. He also opens drawers that are closer to the floor with his feet as well. Then he doesn't have to figure out a way to get back up. If he does bend over he usually has one hand on something solid that can bare his weight so he can push himself back up. Today I was helping Kaitlyn get dressed and she put her foot on the bottom drawer and opened the drawer with her foot! Then proceeded to grab a pair of pants while holding the top of the dresser to support herself! I wish I would have had a camera. We always talk about the fact that the kids don't know any different because Brian has always been this way, but it never occurred to me that they would think it was normal behavior! I guess if that's all they pick up from Brian, maybe we are doing good.

Just to let you know

Just letting you know that I set up a blog for Dylan. You can read more about him and what happened there. The link is on the side below the twins' picture titled "Dylan's Story."

An Eventful Day

Yesterday was crazy busy. It seems like everything is always scheduled on the exact same day! In the morning we went to a Christmas party put on by the MDA (Muscular Dystrophy Association) in Utah. We haven't been able to go in the past. Many of you know that Brian has Muscular Dystrophy. People always think he has MS, that is not the same thing. It was interesting to go to this event and see all the different tolls it takes on families. It definitely made me feel really blessed in my life because some of the children there with Muscular Dystrophy will not live to be adults. Brian's form is relatively mild and he will not ever die from it. Santa came so the girls got to sit on his lap. Of course they were ecstatic about that. Gavin slept through his first encounter with Santa!

Then we went to Walmart so the girls could buy gifts for their angel tree picks. We decided as a family to use the money we would have spent buying gifts for Dylan and we bought toys for kids in need. Maya and Kaitlyn both got to pick a child off the angel tree. It made all of us feel really good to be giving back, especially in Dylan's name.
Then we went to the Mortuary that helped us with Dylan's funeral because they put up a memorial tree in their front room, and you can hang an ornament for your loved one that has passed away. We picked out an ornament for Dylan to hang on the tree. It is a silver angel that says,"Each man's life touches so many others." which is perfect for our family.
Dylan definitely touched our lives and the lives of so many around us. It was a nice tribute.
Brian got tickets from work to go to the USU vs. BYU game. We had second row seats at the Energy Solutions Arena. Many of you know that we went to Utah State University, and that we are anti-BYU. So we got dressed up in our Aggie gear and went to the game. We were surrounded by BYU fans of course, but the Aggie fans greatly outnumbered BYU even though it was a much further drive for them. That's one of the things I love about USU. There are no fans like Aggie fans. Even the ESPN people covering the game will tell you that. So I was a maniac at the game. The people behind me were diehard BYU so they were pissed off at me! It was pretty awesome. I just ignored them and yelled all kinds of crap! Then when I stand up, I am taller than them all so they can't see! It was awesome! They talked lots of smack, but didn't confront me directly. I think that was because of Gavin. Whatever they yelled, I yelled the opposite. USU lost, but it was a good game. The fact that USU can keep up with BYU is kind of embarrassing for BYU since BYU is 3 times the size of USU, but we have had a good team for many years. It was fun to get to go to the game. GO AGGIES! I made my Aggies proud! Gavin in his cute Aggie gear!

Look Familiar?

So Gavin looks identical to Kaitlyn. It is a little creepy actually! They look so much alike. Even Kaitlyn mistakes pictures of her for Gavin. It's a good thing that they are different genders because I would probably get their pictures mixed up! These pictures are both taken at six months. Obviously, Kaitlyn is a little more advanced than Gavin since she is sitting in the picture and Gavin barely sits up in my lap!

Halle-freakin-lujah!!!

Gavin finally slept through the night! I am sure it is a farce and it will not keep happening, but it was a very pleasant surprise this weekend! He only gets up once at night anyways, but to go the whole night was awesome. I don't even remember the last time I got a full night of sleep. It was a very thankful Thanksgiving!
We took down our thankful leaves to put up Christmas. It was nice to be reminded that there are still things to be thankful for in the wake of unhappy times. Plus, it gave the girls a chance to think of new things to be thankful for in their prayers!
We had two Thanksgivings this weekend. We had one at my parents and then we drove up to Idaho and spent one with his family. It was nice since it had been almost 6 years since we had been at either family's for Thanksgiving. We did both because Brian's sister had a bridal shower over the weekend, otherwise I would not venture to try and do both!!! We had a good time, but we are all worn out! Here is us at Leo's place hanging out!
Classic Kaitlyn face!

Peek-A-Boo

Gavin is such a funny baby. When he is laying on his stomach,(and he can tell you are watching) he will drop his head to the floor and wait for you to say "peek-a-boo!" and then he will lift up his head and crack up. I laugh forever about it! I finally got it on video. The camera stresses him out a little, so it takes a few seconds for him to play, but it is pretty funny to watch!

Kaitlyn's School Picture

This big girl just loves having her picture taken. Having school pictures was the highlight of her week. She told me all about it on the way home. She even showed me what positions she put her head in for the pictures! She is definitely a crack-up and so dang cute! I guess that's why we keep her around!

Post election funnies!

I don't want to get totally caught up in politics on the blog, but I thought this was very funny. We got this from Brian's grandma who is clearly anti-Obama. Part of me hopes he fails just so we can shove it back in everyone's faces, but realistically we should be praying he does a good job since the nation is in a state of emergency. So hopefully it all works out for the best! But, it's fun to keep things light-hearted as well!

A night out with my girls

Maya, Kaitlyn, my mother, and I went to the Disney on Ice show last night. It was fun to just have some time with my girls. They loved the show. We had pretty good seats too. It was a lot better than last year. We saw the princess disney on ice last year and they hardly skated at all. Last night they did all kinds of skating. The best part, of course, was when all the princesses came out and skated with their princes. The girls just loved this. They love the romance and the dreams coming true when the princess finds her prince. It was really well done. It's funny to think that we spend money on this stuff! The kids just eat it up though. It's all worth it to see them have a good time and get to see their princess heroes!

Remind me why I wanted to be a mother?!

I am not going to survive being a mother I've decided. Today Kaity got stabbed in the eye with a wand at dance. It was bleeding so I had to take her to Urgent care for the 5th time in the last 3 months. You know it is bad when the urgent care people recognize you! We were there a couple of months ago when Kaity fell in the shower and cut open her head. She of course needed stitches. Then just about a month or so ago she stuck a safety pin up her nose. When your child sticks something up your nose, it is serious business. I thought we could just go to the pediatricia and they could get it out. They couldn't even find it! So they sent us to an ENT. The safety pin was so far up her nose they had to put a special scope up there to see it. It took us hours to get that thing out! Several of the staff and I had to lay on top of her in order for the doctor to retrieve it. Luckily we didn't have to put her out! However, that probably would have been easier. So she is traumatized from the ENT. I told the doctor that I hoped she didn't have any other patients because Kaity was screaming at the top of her lungs, "DR. let me go!, Everyone get off me!!!!" Needless to say, if she ever sticks something up her nose again, I will probably kill her myself! She is only 3 years old, yet I feel like I have aged 10 years with her. I don't know about you, but I definitely did not receive the memo that tells you what you are in for as a mother, otherwise, I probably would have stopped with Maya!!! Love my kids, but some days, I just don't know what we were thinking! :)

Roller skating?

Maya's school had family night at Classic Skating rink. She really wanted to go and it wasn't too expensive so we agreed. Last time we went skating it was a disaster. She assured me that she would do better. Anway, I had to get blades for myself so I could go out on the floor with Kaitlyn and Maya. Neither of them could skate! I had to hold them up and try to balance myself when I haven't been skating in forever!
Needless to say we rented scooters after once around! I thought it was kind of fun that they let them do scooters on the floor. After that, the kids had a blast. Maya even participated in the race, but came in fourth.
Brian was super jealous. He wishes they had had those little scooters when we were young! Those kids can really fly on those! I definitely got my workout on that floor as well.

Officially Voted!

Brian and I voted for the first time today! I haven't voted before because we are usually in a different state or city than we are registered in. I am not organized enough in order to get an absentee ballot. I have mixed feelings about voting since we don't really get to vote for the president. It was fun anyway. It didn't take very long, but it was butt freakin' cold and I parked as far away as possible and then carried Gavin and the carseat all that way!

Adventures in Trick-or-Treating

Whew! Another Halloween has come and gone and we all survived to tell the tale! I tend to dread Halloween because I know we will have endless parties and trick-or-treating to do. Luckily Kaitlyn's party for school was yesterday. This morning was Maya's party and parade at school.


I signed up to help with it. While I was getting ready my mother told me I needed to be dressed up. "All the other mothers will be dressed up!" So I quickly throw on a ridiculous attempt at a clown with a dance costume (that was worn over a decade ago) and a wig. Of course I get there and guess who is the only mother dressed up?! So begins the drama of Halloween. It is just not escapable. The kids were Sleeping Beauty, Tinkerbell, and Gavin was a puppy. Brian got to dress up as Anakin or a Syth Lord, much to his shagrin I'm sure!
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We went trick-or-treating at Brian's work and then we went to Lola's house (grandma) to trick-or-treat. I like going to my mom's neighborhood because I grew up there so I know everybody. Therefore, it must be safer! Plus, we always went to my grandmother's house to go trick-or-treating. Kaitlyn (our special child) fell a few times and brought on the attention of the entire city with her bloodcurdling cry. The best story of the night happened at one of my mom's neighbors' house. He has built an entire pirate ship that he puts up in their front lawn. Then he dresses up as Jack Sparrow. He is really good too, with the attitude and accent. SO there is a big crowd watching him do his thing. We had hyped the kids up about seeing it. As we are leaving Kaitlyn says," (with a disappointed tone and look) I thought he was a REAL pirate!" I thought I was going to die laughing. Here this guy had spent all the time and effort to be flawless and it wasn't convincing at all to a three year old! Oh well! What can you do? Thus, another Halloween has passed. I can't believe it was Halloween last year when we found out we were having twins. Our lives have certainly changed since that moment. Here's to a better year!

Prima Ballerina

Here are the girls as they get ready for dance. They are required to wear these dance warm-ups to the studio. It was not hard to get them to wear them though! They both really like going to dance each week. They both act pretty silly while they are there so I am not totally convinced tha this was a good investment! They enjoy themselves though and I suppose that is all that matters!



Doing first position plie!

A Special Halloween

Last night we went up to East Lawn Cemetary where Dylan is buried to bring him a pumpkin that we made as a family. The social worker from the hospital suggested that we have traditions that we start with our family that include Dylan. I was a little skeptical at first, but the kids were totally up for it. They really enjoyed doing something for Dylan and feeling like he was still a part of our lives. Even Brian was glad that we did it. It really helped our family to feel like he is and always will be a part of our lives. It makes death not so scary and helps us realize in a tangible way that death is not final. I think Maya's fear of death will subside as we include Dylan in the things we do. It will also help with our healing process as well. The most interesting thing is, everytime we go up there Gavin is a whole different person. It's like he knows what we are doing up there. He is totally somber yet happy. I can't explain it. I think the veil will always be thin for those two. He had a horrible day at the hospital the day of Dylan's funeral. You just have to wonder about these babies sometimes. I think they know more than we give them credit for!

Our own little choir

My sister was in town this weekend so we decided to go to church with my mom. It happened to be their primary program. Just on a side note, their program is always fantastic. If there was an award for the best primary program, they would win it hands down every year! They have tons of talent flowing thru that ward. Anywho, my girls know most of the songs since Maya has been learning them for her own program (that will look like child's play next to the one we saw yesterday! :)) so they chose to sing the songs with the primary children. When the kids sang louder, my kids sang louder! Including a few screams from Gavin as he joined in. The best was when Maya says (very loudly) "Hey they sing these songs at my church!" Clearly, we have not made it apparent that "our church" is the same everywhere! Then my mother offers to take the kids to their classes. When she gets back she tells me that Kaitlyn didn't want to go so she had to sit there for awhile. I finally figure out that she has put Kaitlyn in primary because she thought she was a sunbeam, but really she is supposed to go to nursery. Well, since the primary had their program they were having treats, popcorn and a movie in primary. Yeah, like Kaitlyn is really going to leave now! So now, of course, she has a warped vision of what primary is like! Come January, I will not be able to get her to go without treats and a movie!

Five months today

Well our little Gavin is 5 months old today. They grow so fast! He is so fun with tons of personality. Watching how he has changed makes us really think a lot about Dylan. I wonder if he would be loud and crazy like Gavin, or if he would be more somber. Watching him grow up is really hard because we feel like we missed out with Dylan. Maya still asks me all the time why Dylan had to die. I don't have an answer for her. We don't even know why he did die. Even the autopsy left us little to know about his death. My sister is having a baby girl in December. Maya asks me all the time if she is ok and if she is going to die. I can't even assure her that it won't happen, because unfortunately these things happen a lot. I have met many mothers who have lost their child at birth with no prior complications. I am still very grateful for Gavin each day though. I still wake up at night a few times to check if he is still breathing because when we brought him home he stopped breathing (for no reason) and I had to do infant CPR on him to revive him. We had a pretty horrific summer, but hopefully things are looking up from now on! Sometimes I have to wonder if I will really survive being a mother!

Can't take the pressure!

Ok, so the pressure to have a blog is not that bad! Although, it seems like everyone I know has one and they all think I should have one! I guess it is a good way to keep up on what is going on with everybody without having to call each person. It is a good idea for this mom of three that barely gets a shower in each day!