Drunk on Chocolate

No members of our family will be referring to Summer 2013 as the most fun they have ever had.  Hopefully our kids are just young enough to not think of it as the "Summer My Mother was a Complete Borefest and Laid on the Sofa All Day and Only Talked to Us When We Were Getting a Consequence for Misbehavior That Occurred in the First Place Because We Were Bored".  Aka The Summer I Was Pregnant with Twins. I have been really tired and 120 degree weather does not inspire this mother to get out much.  Sorry kids.

So it was the 4th of July, Mack was home and not studying for Boards, and I decided to spice things up a bit.  No fireworks in unincorporated parts of Maricopa county and so the kids were out of luck there.  Instead we made a fun treat.  And it was a mess.  The kids put two jumbo marshmallows on a popsicle stick.  Mack covered them in melted chocolate and I helped the kids roll them in red, white, and blue sprinkles.  If I had gotten this idea from Pinterest, it definitely could have made one of the many "Pinterest Fail" websites.  They were semi-cute (but mostly ugly) and since Mack and I both think sprinkles taste gross, they were only semi-good (mostly nasty).

We had lots of extra chocolate though and so we had a little fondue party.  Where every picture taken looked like my kids were drunk.  For the record, they were not.

 Forgive Jessenia's nakedness.  She was wearing a brand new shirt and I couldn't bear the thought of chocolate stains.

 Fun much!?
Reese looks horrified in the background.  It's that hangover headache kicking in early. 

 "Must I smile?" Notice the chocolate smeared up and down his right arm.

After all that chocolate, Mack threw the kids in the shower and I cleaned up the table.  Here are the clean children (looking slightly less drunk) with their finished products.  Happy 4th of July kids!

Peek-A-Boo

Mack (a month ago):  "Brisbane gets cuter every day!"

Mack (last week):  "Brisbane gets cuter every minute!"

It's pretty much true.  

 "Peek a Boo!"

Point proven.

Jessenia's Birthday!

The year Jessenia gets to celebrate her birthday ON her birthday, we are going to have a smashing party.  Last year Mack had a test the day after her birthday so we postponed the party a few days.  This year Jessenia got her tonsils out less than a week before her birthday, so we celebrated the night before tonsil removal.  She has no idea.  And it was the best decision we could have made.  She was still miserable on her real birthday, plus she had all of her new toys to play with while she was recuperating.

 Here is the beautiful four year old, with her haul.

 She gets prettier every day.  I am a little worried about it. 

 If those presents behind him weren't so obviously not for him, I would lie and say this was his birthday picture.  We never got a good one on his day.  But he of course insisted on having a turn on Jessenia's big day.

 Jessenia is really good at loving every dorky little thing she gets.  Which makes her parents feel good, since their gifts are so clearly sub-par when compared to the gifts she gets from others.

 But this was her favorite!  Reese got a LeapPad for Christmas and Jessenia has been asking for one ever since.  I told her to ask Grandma (since she is who got Reese's) and Grandma did not disappoint.  For all those parents of toddlers, we are so glad that we have these LeapPads.  They are easier for the kids to handle than an Ipad, cheaper, sturdier, and all the games have an educational premise (some more loosely than others).  They are dreamy for road trips and doctor visits when I used to lug fifty busy bags and books to keep them entertained.  I wish we had one for Brisbane, because he is much better at it than our iPods & the games are more interesting to him. 

 More gift opening.

 Reese was a very good big brother, and even drug a chair over to watch his sister open her loot.  He didn't touch any of her things and was very excited for her.
My encouragement of Chick-fil-A after Brisbane's birthday bash, apparently did not fall on deaf ears, and that's where Jessenia chose for her dinner.  Reese and Jessenia even sat at their own little table.  It looked like two little cuties on a date.  (Reese as a teenager:  "Mom!  That's disgusting!")

 In a repeat of last year, Jessenia wanted cupcakes.  Chocolate with pink frosting.
After cake I set the pool up in the backyard and the kids had their first swim of the year.

 Brisbane refused to get in the water but played with his water table instead.

Reese and Jessenia had a blast however!
We love our sweet Jessenia.  She definitely wants to be a helper (even when her 'help' isn't really all that useful).  She is such a good big sister to Brisbane and has the biggest imagination.  We are grateful every day for her goodness and life just wouldn't be the same without her.

Dreams Do Come True

I wasn't sure this was something I was ever going to get to say: I am pregnant!

Mack and I are expecting twins, due January 17th.  I am currently 12 weeks along.  And we couldn't be more thrilled!

It has been a long road to pregnancy for us.  Several low tech fertility treatments, one surgery, three adoptions, and one round of invitro fertilization later (all over a four year span) and we finally did it.

Here is a picture of our two little embryos before they were implanted back into me: 

Yes, that is our kids sitting in a petri dish. How many people can say they have a picture of that?
Whenever we have told people that we are having twins we get that look of, "oh, I am so sorry".  We're not.  We really couldn't be happier.  I told Mack before we started invitro that if we did it, we were going to end up with twins.  I think he didn't take me too seriously.  But neither of us were all that surprised when the doctor told us there were two. 
How many kids does this make!? Yes, we realize this means that we will have five kids five and under.  I am slightly terrified by that thought.  But at the same time, wouldn't have it any other way.  We have been blessed beyond measure with the way in which each of our children has come into our family and we are equally as excited to add two more to the crew.
Do your kids know?  Yes!  We aren't the type of parents who are very good at lying to our children.  When Mack was giving me up to five shots a night, the kids were a bit curious.  So we told them that we were trying to get pregnant.  I think they think babies come from shots.  We aren't correcting that misconception yet.  Depending on the day and the child, they are mostly excited to be getting babies in the family.  Reese and Jessenia have come up with some doozy of name choices for the little tykes.  My favorite by far is "Juice".  Unfortunatly it didn't make the short list, sorry Jessenia.
When do we find out the gender?  The day the twins are born.  We want it to be a suprise.  I always imagined not knowing & even though Mack has been tempted to find out because it is twins, I am sticking to my guns.  If this is my only chance to be pregnant, we are doing it my way.  (And for the record, Mack isn't at all upset about this plan.)
How am I feeling?  Great!  I went into pregnancy thinking I would be sickest most miserable person in the universe because of my history of IBS.  Then adding the prospect of twins with double doses of hormones and I thought we were in for a wild ride.  But I have been pleasantly surprised.  Sure, I don't feel great all the time.  But I really can't complain.  It has been dreamy in comparison to what I thought I would be like.
Are we done?  I have always said that I want 9 kids.  We are on a take it one (or two) kids at a time basis.  We will just have to wait and see.
This journey to pregnancy has been a very spiritual one for our family.  We recognize our Heavenly Father's plan and His will in each of our lives.  We are thankful for the blessings that we recieve and still have faith in Him despite the struggles in our lives and the lives of those around us.  We pray for all of our friends who are struggling to concieve and/or adopt.  We hope that you feel the love of the Savior in your life, regardless of your current place in your journey.

Tonsillectomies

Brisbane landed in the ER in April with swollen lymph nodes and adenoids.  Apparently they were so swollen that they were cutting off his windpipe.  Kind of a major problem.  We spent three very hectic days in the hospital and were grateful for friends and family who watched our kids so Mack and I could tag team the Brisbane Situation. 
This resulted in Brisbane having to get him tonsils removed in early June.
We started noticing this Spring that Jessenia seemed to have some issues hearing.  I thought she was just a bit flighty and willfully ignoring her parents to boot.  But then when Reese started getting on her case for not hearing him when they were playing, I knew we had a problem.  One visit to the ENT and it was confirmed that she had massive fluid behind her eardrums.  That combined with super large tonsils and we had an issue.  She would also need her tonsils removed and tubes put in her ears. 
So two weeks after Brisbane's surgery, Jessenia had hers.  June was the month of Tonsillectomies!
How did it go?  It was basically miserable for everyone.  Brisbane was unhappy and wouldn't eat anything, which made him even more unhappy.  He got fully better about two days before Jessenia went in and then we started all over.  Jessenia wouldn't eat and she slept awful for the first week.
But we did all survive the experience and now have two less kids with tonsils.  (For the record, Reese is incredibly grateful that he did not have to have his tonsils out even if it meant slightly less ice cream consumption for him compared with the others.)  Now we hopefully won't land in the ER with a child struggling to breathe and Jessenia can hear me when I tell her to go change her clothes.  Also we now have two less people in our house that snore like truck drivers.
One last mostly related story:  Mack took the kids to church one Sunday that I was sick at home.  He came home and told me that Brisbane had fallen asleep in Sacrament Meeting and was snoring.  I didn't think much of it since Mack didn't make too big a deal of it.  Then I went to visit a lady in our ward who told me that not only was Brisbane snoring but he was snoring so loudly that members of the congregation were turning around to see where the old man that had fallen asleep was and why nobody was waking him up.  Brisbane was laying on the pew so nobody could see him.  Apparently our little boy caused quite a scene.
Thankfully, not anymore.  So what about the picture of the tunnels connected in a circle?  That's what desperate parents do to entertain kids who can't leave the house because one of the siblings is so miserable.  That's right.  All three of our children are inside those tunnels.  We are expecting our Parents of the Year Awards any day now.

Random



Brisbane is in a bit of a stage with getting his diaper changed.  We have to go through all sorts of antics to keep him from fighting us and rolling off the changing table.  This usually involves myself, Reese, and Jessenia running around with "Diaper Hats" on.  Who would have thought that Pampers was brilliant to print Sesame Street characters on their diapers?  I often resort to showing Brisbane all of the character options and letting him choose one.  Apparently it matters whether Ernie or Big Bird is gracing your bum.

This day I talked Brisbane into a diaper change by letting him wear his shorts on his head.

 What can I say?  Desperate times call for desperate measures.

 Reese and Jessenia went through about a week long phase where they went to 'school' everyday.  Reese took this new game very seriously and wore his backpack everywhere.  Lunch.  Watching tv. Playing cars.  In the above picture he is doing his Kindergarten Prep workbook pages.  I thought it was too cute with the backpack and Uncle David's combat hat.

 Last time we went to Costco I let Reese think that he got to pick something special since he had to walk and the other two got to ride in the cart.  I was already going to buy those Drumsticks but when I asked Reese, "Do you think we should get those?" and he said, "Yes!", he definately felt like he had been the deciding factor in ice cream or no ice cream.

 But that was only the beginning of the fun.  Who knew that Brisbane would (barely) fit in that box?  Reese dutifully pushed him around while making train noises.

Like I said, it was a tight squeeze.  So the box was fun and the ice cream was delicious.  Win Win!

Simple Things

Grandmas are magic!  They take the simplest things and make them into the most fun and entertaining activity imaginable.  Whenever my mom comes to visit she opens my eyes to a myriad of things to do with my kids that require basically zero effort on my part.

This particular visit from Grandma was when the joy of balloons was introduced at my house.  I am telling ya, balloons can entertain my kids for DAYS.  And the number of days of entertainment is directly related to the number of days that the parents can stand having a bunch of balloons lying around the house.

 When the kids realized that sticking balloons up their shirts was hilarious, that led to even more hours of fun.

 The boys developed some game that involved chest pumping with balloons stuffed under their shirts.  It was highly ineffective, highly dangerous, and highly entertaining.

 We made lots 'o cookies while my mom was here to give to some families as thank you's for helping our family out in recent months.  Grandma let the kids make cookie sandwiches with some of the leftovers.

 Reese was very conscientious about getting the icing on the cookie.

Jessenia was more interested in just eating the icing.  Probably not the most hygenic activity we have ever undertaken, but good fun nonetheless.  Thanks Grandma!