Great News!

Well, for those who don't already know, I am expecting again! I waited to post until my appointment this morning, because I wasn't sure if we were expecting another set of twins, or one baby. And the great news is that there is just one baby coming, and he or she is right on track. I love my sweet little bubs, but Cody and I were pretty overwhelmed at the thought of possibly having another set, so great news, it should be a bit easier this time around!

I will be 10 weeks along tomorrow, so I've got a ways to go, which will give us some good time to prepare. We're excited for this new little addition to our family.

New Favorite Recipes

Last January, one of the resolutions I made was to try at least one new recipe every month. The list of meals I could make was rather short and I was getting sick of the same ol' stuff. I would say about half of the recipes I tried were duds, but half were great, so I'm pretty happy about the additions to my menu. I thought I'd share two favorites.

First, this soup/chowder has become a staple in our home. In fact, it is cooking on my stove right now, which made me once again remember why I love this recipe so much. #1 - Minimal dishes are used in the process. Everything is cooked in one pot. I use one knife, and one cutting board. No meat is required. #2 - It smells so good while it's cooking and turns out great every time.

A couple notes on this recipe - this could easily be doubled or tripled for a larger family. It is enough for Cody, the bubs, and I, but there usually aren't any leftovers. I actually have no idea how this reheats, because there is never any left! Also, I like mine to be a bit thicker and it really is quite thin if you follow the directions. So, until I figure out another solution, I just add some corn starch at the end until it's at the desired thickness. I usually serve this with some Rhodes Rolls, or refrigerator bisquits. Yummy!

Lion House Potato Onion Chowder

1 c. diced onions
1/2 c. finely chopped celery
2 T. butter
1 can (about 13 oz.) condensed chicken broth
1 t. salt
dash of pepper
2 c. cubed or sliced raw potatoes
1 1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. light cream
1 t. chopped parsley (I think it's way better to use fresh, but I have used dried parsley in a pinch, and it still turns out great)

Saute onions and celery in butter until transparent, but not browned. Add chicken broth, salt, pepper, and potatoes. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and boil gently until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Add milk, light cream, and parsley. Heat thoroughly. Makes about 5 servings.

Second, I tried a few different alfredo recipes this year, and finally found one we all love. The best part is that it is quite simple. I use fettuccine, but you could use any type of pasta. I then cut up 1 or 2 chicken breasts and fry them in olive oil with garlic salt to season. Add some steamed broccoli, and voila! Fantastic. In no way is this a low fat recipe, so watch out!

Fettuccine Alfredo (from realmomkitchen.com)

1/3 c. butter
1 T. flour
1 2/3 c. whipping cream
1/3 c. skim milk
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. salt
pepper
1/3 c. shredded parmesan cheese
parsley (optional - I just like to add some fresh parsley)
10 oz. fettuccine, cooked

In saucepan, melt butter. Then add flour and mix until smooth. Mix in cream, milk, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then simmer until sauce is decreased by half and thickened. Stir in parmesan cheese until melted. Stir in parsley. Pour over cooked noodles and toss. Serves 5.

More Movies

Okay, so I know I'm kind of going crazy posting since it's been FOREVER, but I found this funny video of Cody making Afton laugh, filmed during this past month, which reminded me of an old video of Cody making Maeryn laugh. Well, I found that video too! So, here are two cute videos of Cody making the bubs laugh, then and now.

The Bubs and Ruby

As I mentioned in a previous post, the bubs love to play with their cousins. While I was babysitting Ruby one day, I caught some video of the three of them playing together. I love that they get along so well!

Afton and Instruments

Here is a video of Afton sharing her knowledge of musical instruments. She had just started listing them off, so we grabbed the camera and tried to get her to repeat it all. She and Maeryn like to pretend that their utensils are instruments at the dinner table. The bubs developed an interest in their instruments starting with Baby Einstein's Meet the Orchestra, which they still love to watch. They also love when I play the piano, and always want to sit on my lap while I play, which can be rather tricky. I showed them a video of a real orchestra playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 on YouTube and that has become a favorite. They watch it sometimes multiple times a day. That led to requests for videos of every other instrument. They have favorite YouTube videos of bassoons, recorders, flutes, etc. I'm thinking the playing of musical instruments is in their future. :)

Halloween

We had a very fun Halloween. The bubs dressed up as pumpkins. Cody and I didn't dress up, as usual. Anyway, we enjoyed a night with family. We went to Tim and Jalene's house for some excellent chili (made by Tim) and all the yummy sides to go with it. Then we headed out for some trick-or-treating. The bubs stuck with their little cousins, Ruby and Anna, who are also 2 years old, and who were both adorable little bumble bees. Maeryn did say "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" at a few of the houses, while Afton gave a rather hilarious blank stare, but was happy to oblige when told to take some candy. Then we all headed back for some homemade wassail (made by Jalene and the best I've ever had) and some more visiting.

I wish I had gotten a picture of all of my cute neices and nephews last night. We had a couple zombies, a couple gypsies, a fairy princess, Hermione Granger, an orange-wigged pumpkin girl, ninja turtle, bumble bees, pumpkins, and Princess Leia (my 10-month old neice Maybrie with costume made my her oh-so-talented mother, Summer), and Elmo (my newest little nephew, Howie - Just wanna squoosh those cheeks!).

Little side note: I did dye my hair brown a few weeks back, and think I'll be sticking with it for a while, so here's my new do.

Maeryn Cleaning

I found Maeryn doing a bit of cleaning the other morning. I promise I don't use my own spit to clean, so I'm not sure where she got the idea.

Family Update

It's been a few months since I last posted a general update about our family. So here goes . . . It's gonna be a long one!

First, Cody graduated. Hooray! He received his Bachelor of Science in Digital Media from UVU and is done with school (at least for now). It was admittedly quite stressful at times for all of us, but he finished and learned a lot in the process. One of the most valuable experiences he had while attending UVU was the opportunity to work in the Center for Digital Design and Development on campus. He actually continues to work there very part-time and will finish up at the end of this year. His primary focus was creating applications using Flex Builder.

As Spring semester came to a close and with only a couple online courses left to take over the summer, Cody started looking for full-time work . . . and looking . . . and looking. I'm certain many people can relate. It was a very stressful time, to put it mildly. There were lots of interviews, second interviews, and no job offers. Finally Cody decided to go into business for himself doing freelance web design and development. He had already been doing side jobs, so it was just a matter of drumming up more business. My parents kindly offered him a room in their home to use as an office (working from home was not an option) and he got to work. Still, with the inconsistency of freelance work (and pay) we were still pretty stressed. Thankfully, this didn't last long as Cody received a call from a company he had interviewed with a few months back, asking if he was still interested. After weighing our options, Cody took the job.

He now works for a company in Draper as their only, full-time web developer. He has felt very valued and appreciated and has had plenty of work to keep him busy. He pulled a 17-hour work day on Friday, which I hope will not be repeated, but is excited about the project he's working on. His experience at the Center at UVU has proven extremely valuable as he is creating a customizer using Flex Builder, which he loves.

Cody is continuing to do projects on the side as well, and I truly appreciate how much time he puts in to support our family. When he has a bit of free time, which is a somewhat rare occurence these days, he continues to be an avid PC gamer. We are grateful for the date nights we are able to steal together here and there, and I must say that he is awesome about letting me pick the movies we see. Seriously, he'll watch anything with me . . . including 5-hour BBC miniseries, and Jane Austen flicks. I sure love him!

The bubs have been cute as can be and the main source of my recent hair loss. Just kidding. :) They do keep me on my toes. They are smart little cookies, and curious as ever. They know all of their shapes, colors, and alphabet. They can count to 12, sing the words to a number of songs, and have an affinity for musical instruments. More on the instruments later . . . . The biggest change they have experienced of late is the move to BIG GIRL BEDS. I thought this would be a happy occasion, but it has been quite the rollercoaster! They successfully tipped over their dresser, removed drawers, opened their closet and emptied out boxes of clothes, etc. We first removed everything from their room except their beds, and then had to remove everything within their reach in the closet. I'd say the day I found them in their room, with the floor completely covered in baby wipes and realized they had opened EVERY package of Costco wipes in their closet, probably wins the prize. Lately they've been spending two hours locked in their room during nap time, bouncing on their beds and generally being rowdy and NOT SLEEPING. Cody and I had a good laugh the other day when we talked about what we would suggest to other parents of twins about transitioning to BIG GIRL BEDS. Cody suggested removing everything from the room and padding the walls. I voted for adult-sized cribs. :)

The bubs really are sweet little girls though, and I love them SO much, despite the stress they cause. I said to Maeryn the other day, "Maeryn, say, 'I'm cute!'" To which she replied, "No,no. I'm stinkin' cute!" And this morning as I was getting ready for church Afton looked my outfit over and said, "Mama black shoes, soooo pretty!"

I've been busy as I recently joined the HOA board for our community. As we are in the midst of a lawsuit, it has been a rather time-consuming responsibility, but at least I'm in the loop, right?

I've also had the opportunity to watch my little nephew and neice, Jack and Ruby, a few times while my sister Hillary, and her husband Kurt were house-hunting. The bubs love all of their cousins, so they were excited to have Jack and Ruby over. I'll show a video of them with Rubes later, that is just adorable! The great news is that Kurt and Hillary are under contract and will be moving into a home in Orem just after Thanksgiving. I'm so excited they'll be living closer to us!

I've also been busy with my writing group, and working on my own writing project. As I've been doing some research, I've had the opportunity to visit regularly with my old piano teacher, whom I love. I hadn't seen him in 8 years, and it has been so wonderful to catch up with him. He is such a dear man.

Most of the time, though, I'm just busy with the day to day.

So, there's an update! Like I said, a LONG update! I'll try to be better about posting more often so these posts don't get out of control!

Note on Pictures: Afton is on the left and Maeryn the right where they are together. Afton is in the pink and dark blue. Maeryn is in the light blue and giving the big cheeser grin. :)

New Video

If you have not had a chance to watch the latest YouTube video from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I would highly recommend it. It was just what I needed today.

Just go to www.lds.org and it's on the home page, entitled Lifting Burdens.

Blog Addresses

I don't know why I can't seem to figure this out, but I changed my blog background and lost my blog list with all of the addresses I had for friends and family. So, if your blog address does not appear on the side of my blog, it's because I could not locate or remember your exact blog address. Please help me out and send me your address if it does not appear there. Also, some of you have private blogs and I need new invites to be able to post your address on my blog. Sorry, I know it's a pain. I won't let this happen next time! Or perhaps I'll just stick with this blog background for the life of this blog. :)

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today marks 7 years of marriage for Cody and Me. Spencer was kind enough to babysit for us yesterday so we could have a few hours to ourselves. I also managed to have him take a picture before we left. We have next to no pictures of the two of us together because neither of us is very good about remembering to take pictures, so I made sure we got one this time! Anyway, we went to one of our favorite burger joints, Burger Supreme, in Provo, took a little drive in the canyon, and then just enjoyed some good conversation at a favorite park. It was fun to reminisce. I love you, Cody!

Recent Pictures

Here are a couple very recent photos of the bubs. I have found that I have way more pictures of Maeryn than Afton, because Afton is not one to hold still, so most of my pictures of her are blurry. As a result, I get excited when I finally get a shot of her holding still. Smiling is a bonus. So, here is a great shot of Afton smiling, a more serious expression from Maeryn, and the two of them playing so cute together on the trampoline. Cutie Patooties.
Note: What's on Afton's pants, you might ask? Crayon. That's right. I thought crayons would be safer than markers. Turns out Afton will color on herself with anything she can get her hands on!

ABC Song

The 4th ended a bit stressful as the bubs were incredibly fussy, but we did enjoy some great food at a BBQ hosted by Brian and Summer earlier in the day. The highlight of the day came on the drive to the BBQ. Afton and Maeryn have been fascinated by the alphabet of late, and ask me to sing "the ABC song" all the time! Maeryn decided it was high time she sang it herself, so here is her performance, direct from the back seat of our Ford Taurus. Afton decided to jump on the ABC bandwagon after Maeryn performed, but we couldn't get her to perform for the camera. Hopefully I'll get her to do it sometime this week!

June

In June, I had the opportunity to go down to St. George for the weekend with two of my dear writing buddies, Kristen and Hannah. It was a great chance to relax, write, converse, and just all around enjoy some time away. Thanks ladies for a wonderful trip! Sorry folks, no pictures.

The weekend after I went to St. George was the 3rd Bi-Annual Don Reynolds Family Reunion. I was in charge! It was a bit crazy when our venue fell through the week of and I had to come up with a backup plan. Despite the stress, I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and I think everyone had a good time. We ate a lot of good food, went swimming, had a craft, bounce house, and pinata for the kids, played a game where we learned the name of Noelle's baby due in August (Howard Miguel Torres, a.k.a. Howie), enjoyed an adults only evening (love all the kids, but a nice chance to talk without having to shout!), and had a wonderful testimony meeting on Sunday. It was SO great to have everyone together and especially wonderful to see Chris and his kids from CA and Jess, Just and kids from WA. I JUST LOVE MY FAMILY!!!

Note: In this picture of the 18 grandkids, Afton is the one crying up top, and Maeryn is on the bottom row. The grandkids picture is always an interesting experience. :)

The Events of May

In mid-May we celebrated Ruby's birthday at my parents' house. She is one of 5 girls born within 6 months of each other on my family's side. She is quite the cutie and we love her. We also loved her cake! Pretty awesome, huh? Hill did a great job!

At the end of May I had the opportunity to go to my little brother Spencer's high school graduation. This marks the end of an era for my parents. As we sat on the bleachers in the Marriott Center, my mom leaned over and said, "Your dad told me this morning, 'Just think, this is the last time we will ever have to wake up a child for school!'" That's right, after 33 years of having at least one child in school, my parents can finally sleep in! I was so glad to be there. Spence is a special brother. Part of me doesn't want to face all of the changes he's making. You know, like growing up, moving out of the house, going to college, going on a mission . . . We love you, Spence!

Bach's Cello Suite No. 1

I just love this song so much. It is absolutely beautiful. I was reminded of it when I watched the preview of The Soloist. Here is a performance of the song by Yo-Yo Ma.

Yo-Yo Ma Plays the prelude from Bach's Cello Suite No.1

Favorite Picture

Okay, so I've written a dozen posts today to make up for lost time. This should finish things off. I just wanted to post my favorite picture of the bubs together taken in the past 3 months. Maeryn's on the left, and Afton on the right.

Bubs Having Fun

Hooray! I figured out how to upload videos. I tried in the past, and for some reason I could never get a video to fully upload. So, now that I've figured it out, here is a cute video of the bubs one night after their bath, just before bed. They are typically very wound up right before bed, so here's a glimpse of the Lloyd home around 8:00 p.m. each night.

Easter

We did have a nice Easter, the highlight of which was the annual Northridge Easter Egg Hunt, held in my parents' neighborhood. Spencer acted as cameraman to help us get some footage of the event. It was pretty quick because the rain started to pour right as the hunt began. The bubs thought it was great, and Afton was crying "eggs! eggs!" as we carried them inside. I think she would have stayed outside until she was soaked through if we let her.

Hats

The bubs think anything and everything is a hat. I have found various "hats" on their heads including bowls, blankets, washcloths, dishtowels, purses, baby wipes, tights, and the most difficult to remove, the container that holds their plastic pipes.
As a little sidenote, how funny that they are wearing their green shirts in all of these pictures. They were not taken on the same day!

Afton

Afton (a.k.a. Crunch or Crunchin' - I know, silly nicknames) is quite the little character. She loves her movies, particularly "elle" which means Giselle, a.k.a. "Enchanted", "enchantin" which means "Ella Enchanted", and "paces", otherwise known as Baby Einstein's "Baby's Favorite Places". She likes to boss Maeryn around a bit, as I have mentioned, she loves to go "bye bye" and has been known to throw quite a fit when it's time to come home, she is very quick going up and down the stairs up to our condo now, and she is a HUGE fan of string cheese. Her record is 5 in one day. I know, I should have said "no" at some point. Anyway, she's an independent little Crunch and we love her to pieces. I have found that I often have more pictures of Maeryn than Afton just because Afton won't often hold still long enough for me to take a picture, so I've got plenty of blurry images and plenty of pictures featuring Afton reaching up to the camera (one is included here). Here are some recent favorite pictures of the Crunch.

Maeryn

Maeryn (a.k.a. Nutchabee - I know, again, a silly nickname) has become quite proficient in the art of saying "no", which most often takes the form of "nope" when she says it. She can be a bit of a whiner at times, most often crying because if she had it her way, she would be held, cuddled, and have your full attention 24/7. She quite often asks for a "big hug" or asks me to rock her in the rocking chair, "rock ya." She likes to put things on her head - everything becomes a hat, and wear little purses, and has even figured out how to put her shoes on all by herself. She is a huge fan of Grandpa, Opa, Daddy, and Uncle Spencer. So, she'll ask me for the big hugs when she's stuck at home with me, but if any of the above four are available, I'm history.
It seems that Maeryn has inherited something from her Opa - a love of dips, sauces, and condiments. Her favorite is BBQ sauce. The other day I went into the other room for a moment while the bubs were working on some Wendy's. When I came back, I found Maeryn thus. You can see the chain of events in the pictures here . . .

Cousins

I am so grateful that the bubs have SO many cousins to play with. They ask for many of them by name. When Jess was in town with her girls, Daphne and Naomi, in February, we took this picture of all of the little girl cousins after a round of dress-up at Grandma and Grandpa's. You'll note that most of their cousins are girls, which makes for a lot of fun and potentially a lot of drama. :)

Long Time, No Write

Well, here we are and nearly three months have passed since I last posted! We have experienced some colds/allergies in the past few months (Maeryn poses here on the couch - this is what we do when we're sick), we have enjoyed visiting with Jessica, Daphne, and Naomi from Washington (once in February and once in April), and Brandon, Amy, and Benjamin, also from Washington. We have enjoyed nice weather, and then the return of bad weather before Spring could truly begin.

It seems I have spent nearly every spare minute reading throughout March and April. I have been on a reading rampage! With one great book after another I just couldn't get enough! Since I last posted I have read Austenland by Shannon Hale, The Goose Girl also by Shannon Hale, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel, and These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner. They were all great books, and all quick reads as well. Now I'm back to the classics, reading Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens. It's going to take me a while to finish this one, but so far I am thoroughly enjoying it.

The bubs have been talking up a storm. They repeat everything I say and are eager to learn new things. They've got all of their shapes, colors, and animals/animal sounds down. We're working on their numbers and letters, and they have started surprising me with a few multi-syllabic phrases. If they can't see each other at any given moment, you will hear strings of, "Where are you? Where is she?" over and over around the house or wherever they are. Afton can be a bit bossy, so when she loses sight of Maeryn you'll hear "Maeryn! Where are you? Come back here! Right now!" It's quite amusing. Maeryn took her turn being the little mom the other day when Afton was throwing a tantrum in the kitchen. Maeryn ran right up to her and said, in her face, "Time Out!" I guess they know what that means. :) Time-Outs have become much more frequent these days and it's certainly not uncommon to hear "No!" or "Nope!" in response to anything I ask them to do. They love to go "bye bye", and especially love to go to "the park", or "the big slide". I'm grateful that Spring is here because I have to admit that I have nearly every Barbie and Baby Einstein DVD memorized - time for a change of scenery!

Crayons

The Bubs love to color, and this makes me happy, for the most part. However, I'm not so excited about them coloring with crayons when I find this . . .

Afton's New Do

The day before the Bubs' birthday, I stopped off at my parents' house after their 2 year checkup. (By the way, current stats: Both in 50th percentile for height, 25th for weight, and 10th for head circumference) When it was time to pack up and leave, we discovered a lack of pigtails on the back of Afton's head. 4-year-old cousin Penelope was summoned and the truth revealed - Afton had taken a trip to Penelope Lott Salon! The good news is that the twins are now much easier to tell apart. Afton has a little bob and Maeryn's got the pigtails. :)

Here's a picture of Penelope's finished product, before Afton took a little trip to Mommy Salon for some finishing touches.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Well, the Bubs celebrated their 2nd birthday on February 5th. Can you believe it?! Time flies! We had a little celebration at my parents' house. Afton particularly liked being sung to and began to rock back and forth energetically, when she was a bit too energetic and bonked her head on the table! So, she's sporting a nice little birthday bruise. Maeryn seemed a little out of sorts, so when she threw up all over herself and me and Afton and just about everything else during dinner, I guess the mystery was solved. We stripped down the Bubs, Maeryn seemed much better (I think she had a case of too many sweets), and they had a good ol' time dancing with their cousins Ruby and Anna on the coffee table in the living room. (Don't worry Mom, we hurried and got them off after we discovered their mischief, but we snapped a few pictures to capture the moment). So, quite the birthday! Fortunately, both Bubs are just fine despite the head-bonk and the vomit. Thanks to Tim and Kenna for cleaning up the mess - I am forever in your debt!

For this life event, I thought I'd copy a friend and recap the past two years. We've come a long way!

Happy Birthday, Afton and Maeryn!