The Sound of Music

A couple of weeks ago, I had a night out all by myself to go see my sister's All Region Choir concert in Cleburne. It's rare for me to go out without Ryan and at least one kid, so it was kind of nice to meet up with my parent's and just have an all adult evening. At the end of the concert, they announced who had made it through another round of auditions to pre-area. Caitlin told us all that she didn't think she would make it, so when we heard her name called for 5th chair we went crazy! This means she has to make it through only one more audition before becoming a member of the prestigious All State Choir. She is so talented and we were all very proud of her that night... Ryan and I also took a night away from the kids together to go see our friends Brian, Jenny, and Shelby perform in Michael McLean's "The Forgotten Carols." I wish I would've brought my camera that night because it was so fun... a really neat musical with a good message. And after hearing all that great Christmas music, we are definitely geared up for the holiday season!

One of these things is NOT like the others

Anyone who says that there's not much difference between boys and girls needs to spend the day at my house. Carver has been especially wild and crazy lately. It's not uncommon to find him "monkeying around," he literally starts hopping around, climbing on things, and making monkey noises for no particular reason. We'll say, "are you a monkey Carver?" and he smiles and shakes his head yes. We all know to watch out for the words, "ready, set, GO!" as they are sure to be followed by some flying object, often Carver himself flying from couch to floor...hey, at least he gives us a warning. And then there's my personal favorite, when he hands me the tv remote and says "show peas" as in "please turn on my show now mom" - a truly male moment. Here are our 3 little mohawked babies, we call 'em our little mohicans... When thing's get quiet, that usually a red flag... Carver's doing something he shouldn't be. The other day I ran to get the phone and a few seconds later I noticed that it was unusually quiet. I ran to look for Carver in all the usual places but I couldn't find him anywhere. The only place left to look was the babies' room, and low and behold he had climbed into bed with Elsie (who had been napping). I found him patting her head and shoving her pacifier into her mouth saying "here sissy, here sissy." Every once in a while the silence is a good thing, like the other day when Carver was just quietly reading Elsie a book while Ava looked on... Carver is normally the first one to jump out of a picture (which is why Kaydree's arms are always around him holding him still). But every once in a while I'll get a smile out of him and maybe even a pose... When things get crazy, I'll hear Ryan telling Carver "Good thing you're cute..." But even though he's different from our girls and a little wild and crazy, I sure do love our little man!

die cuts are a girls best friend

We had a baby shower for my friend Cami last week and I had lots of fun with the decorating. I have been wanting a die cut machine or a Cricut forever, but at times like this I realize that it's probably best that I don't have easy access to one or I would just go CRAZY! There's just something about brightly colored paper cut perfectly into cute little shapes that makes me smile (what can I say? I also love school supplies). So anytime I am down visiting my parents in Cleburne, I usually manage to find an excuse to waltz on in to their school district offices and help myself to the resource room, "The Niche" as it is affectionately called by teachers and counterfeit teachers (aka: me). No, I don't have the excuse of teaching preschool this year like I did last year, so my die cutting escapades are becoming few and far between, but something like a baby shower just sets me off as you can see...
O is for Olivia...
Luckily, there is no shortage of expectant mothers around here (the 3 girls and 1 boy club seems to be very popular lately...), so I'm sure I will get the chance to help out with another baby shower before I know it.

6 months

They say that with twins the first year is the hardest. Well, here we are at the half way point and it's feelin' pretty good. No major injuries, illnesses, or any other catastrophes. Sure it's hard, but we can definitely take another 6 months with these cuties...

E, A

6-9 months is my favorite baby stage. They really start to pack on the chubs before becoming mobile and slimming down and looking like a big kid. I've always wanted a really REALLY fat baby, the kind that can hide stuff in their rolls...not a huge likelihood since Ryan and I were both pretty normal looking. I haven't been so lucky in this department thus far: Kaydree was pretty small, and it got a little better with Carver who was usually right around average. But my 2 girlies are pretty close to a wish come true. At their 6 month appointment, Elsie weighed in at 15 lbs. 14 oz. (50th percentile) and Ava weighed 16lbs. 8oz. (75th percentile). Both girls are in the 97th percentile for their height. So overall, even Elsie (the smaller of the 2) weighs more than both Kaydree and Carver did at her age, and both girls are longer as well...not bad considering their birth weights were much less than our older kids.

You'd think all that extra weight would slow them down but our girls are still all over the place. They love to laugh and play together, it's so much fun to watch. In the past month, the ladies have learned to sit unassisted. Elsie's much more solid, she can balance pretty well on her hands whereas Ava is a little more tipsy (Ryan says her cheeks weigh her down)...

E, A

E

A

We also started rice cereal. Elsie took pretty well to it but Ava was a little less enthused...

E

A

I have a couple of funny videos that I've been trying to upload but my computer just isn't havin' it so I'll have to try to put them on another post.

Halloween Happenings

We kicked off Halloween this year with the Trunk 'r Treat at church. Our ward parties are always really fun, the Gandy's do a great job. Here's the whole crew...Carver jumped right in for the hula hoop contest...Kaydree posing with her friends. I thought it was so funny after I took the picture the girls looked at it on my camera and Olivia said, "Can you send me one?"First Halloween's are SO confusing... (E, A)We weren't sure if anyone would get the whole Brangelina thing, but as it turns out we got 1st runner up for the best costume and the award for best celebrity couple. Not bad for the easiest costume ever, we already had all the kids to go with it... We weren't sure if our resident pumpkin carver (aka Ryan) would be around to help us carve a cute pumpkin this year(he's been traveling for work again in Virginia). But as luck would have it, he showed up just in time to help us paint pumpkins... Our little monster: his shirt says "Monster in training" but he's not fooling anyone, he's been a full blown monster since the day he was born, no training required...On to the big night, here are our 4 Buckeyes! We're definitely hoping for a scholarship some day...We figure Carver better get used to the ladies falling all over him if he has any kind of future career as an athlete...Happy Halloween and GO BUCKEYES!