Time Flies!

My goodness! Things have been so busy around here! Lets see. . . .let me update you on the fam. Tyler is doing well, he will be 5 in a few weeks. Pretty crazy to think I have a 5 year old. Okay so its not as crazy as having 5 kids I know, but what do you do. Ethan had a 1 cm kidney stone taken out about a month ago. He has recovered just fine. We had a couple of weeks of uncomfort, but that little guy is a trooper! His chronic diarrhea makes him chronically dehydrated, which in turn makes it easier for him to get kidney stones. Who knew a 3 year old could get a kidney stone. Hanna is doing well also. ( She dressed herself in this picture, it was right before she put ALL of the fish food in the fish tank ;)We are working on potty training her. Not so easy when you are so busy, but someday we will get there. Abram and Owen are so fun! They don't let me sleep much, but who needs sleep anyways? (Oh wait, I need sleep! ~yawn~) So Owen does sleep through the night, most nights, which is awesome. Abram on the other hand just seems to need a snack in the middle of the night. Which is fine by me considering they are in the 5th and the 3rd percentiles. My little ones.
Ryan and I are in the process of trying to sell our house. So if you know anyone who needs one, send them our way! ( http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-Detail/845-Winona_Idaho-Falls_ID_83401_M21803-35819) We will be staying in Idaho Falls.I think that's about it for now, I just wanted to update all of you! Happy April!

Grateful

I can't believe that you can have the craziest day as a mom, where so many "oh my gosh, you have got to be kidding me," moments occur and then just one smile or cuddle and it makes it all worth it! I don't know how my kids melt my heart, but they do, over and over again. I can't believe how lucky I am to be a mom! I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Never a Dull Moment

We seriously never have boring times at our house! I went to tuck in Ty last night and he didn't have a shirt on so I asked him:
Me: "Where is your shirt?"
Ty: "Um. . ."
Me: Checking under his covers, "Did you take your pants off too?"
Ty: "Um . . "
Me "Are you naked?"
Ty: Guiltily,"Oh, I didn't know."
Me: "Ty you need to wear your pajamas!"
Ty: "I can't it hurts my eczema."
Me: "Well you at least have to wear underwear."
Ty: Almost crying, "NO!!!! It hurts me."
Me: "Sorry we always wear under wear, but you don't have to wear your pajamas."
Ty: With a 'yes I won' smile on his face, "okay"

So my 4 year old likes to sleep naked! I knew it was going to be crazy raising boys but I didn't know they would start so many "boy" things this young!
Ethan and Tyler share a room and EVERY night we go in to check on them because of the noise they are making and they are on the floor wrestling, for fun. Both as happy as can be. I don't get boys! They are so silly! And while the boys are wrestling I check on Hanna only to find her with her favorite shoes on, in bed, playing with all of her barbies quietly. Oh and when I got her out of bed this morning, she had the shoes on again. So she got up after I tucked her in again with no shoes, and put them on to sleep with them. She does beat all!

The Fam

You will have to forgive me, because in my last post I made it seem like the twins cried all of the time. They are really good babies! They do have acid reflux though which can put a damper on happy babies, but luckily they have medicine to help soothe their little throats. I was so proud of my mommy powers today! I finally distinguished the cry of the twins. Lets hope that it can continue and is not a one time thing!
Tyler was all ready for church today and to me to hold Abram up so that he could see how cute he looked with his new tie. So I held him up and I assure you that Abram thought his brother looked so spiffy for church. Tyler just adores his new brothers! He is going to make a great little daddy someday, but for now he is a great big brother.
Ethan is starting to become more and more interested in the twins. I catch him sneaking over to them to give them kisses, it is so cute! This is his first week as a sunbeam, and he is so excited! He is getting to be such a big boy!
Hanna is the little mommy of the house. She scolds Ethan and Tyler if they do ANYTHING they are not supposed to, and if they don't listen to her she comes to me crying that they won't do what they should. Ever since it became cold outside she has to wear a hat and shoes/boots all the time. Its pretty funny! She always has to have a "complete" outfit. She is a sweetie!
Abram and Owen are still a half of a pound apart, and the more they weigh the less you can tell the weight difference. I also think that the older they get the more they look alike. I have to look at them pretty good before I can tell them apart, and in the beginning I could easily do it. It looks like I might have to start painting their big toes again. They will be eight weeks tomorrow and Abram weighs 8 lbs. 11 oz., and Owen weighs 8 lbs. 2 oz.
What a fun little family!

First Post of the Year

I was looking through our family pictures to find a more recent family picture and realized that we don't have one of the whole family yet. Bummer. The picture above though technically has everyone in it, Abram and Owen were in my tummy. At least now I know we need one now.

My goodness these last couple of weeks have been busy! We love our new additions! The kids all do so well with the babies. It has been easier for me to keep things more organized because I am always up doing something. I definitely have less down time with 5 kids, but i am getting used to it. After almost two months i would have to say that the hardest part about twins is, well, having two of them. :) I know that seems weird to say. We were blessed with really good babies! They have such a good temperament. Its does become challenging when they are both crying at the same time, or are hungry at the same time. (I have not yet mastered the nursing two at a time technique.) It makes me feel bad that I can't help their every need when they want it, but I guess they are learning patience right? (I know, babies have no concept of patience, nor will they for another year or two.) I would say that by far the hardest thing is at night when one is crying and hard to get to sleep for an hour or two, and then when he finally goes to bed the other one starts the same thing. It's pretty funny how they are truly on their own schedule. Ones crying doesn't wake up the other. I do love though that they have different wake times during the day. I get to play with each of the individually and I have so much fun with it!
For the holidays we put the twins in stockings and took pictures. I thought it would be super cute but it just ended up looking goofy. The boys were SO small compared to their stockings, it was just a little bit ridiculous!
With the new year I look forward to many memories with family and friends! Here's to an amazing 2011!

First 4 Days at Home

We all came home from the hospital on Thursday, and things couldn't be better! Ry and I are having so much fun with these little cuties! The kids want to help out a little too much sometimes, and they are not really liking the boundaries we are setting for them. They do eventually accept them because they want to be close to the babies. The first time Ty held one of the babies since we arrived home he said quietly, "I love you! My name is Tyler." It was so cute! Then he said, "He knows me now mom."
I have heard tons of stories about twins that the first few months are crazy and you never get any sleep and it all just becomes a big blur. I actually feel quite the opposite, granted I have only been home for 4 days. I am having the time of my life with my new little family! Sure it is hard work and I do have help from my family, but what family isn't hard work. I just can't get enough of the two new sweet little boys that are new to our family! I love how much they look alike, but how their personalities are different. We don't get too much sleep, but being pregnant with twins, sleep was something that you just heard about and never believed could ever happen. So even a little bit of sleep is better than none at all.
Hanna is quite the little mommy! She tries to make sure that they have their blankets and everything else that they might need. Any noise that they make Tyler is there right away to make sure they are okay. When they make little noises, Ty looks at me and says, what did he say? It is really funny! Ethan likes to look at them but that is about it. He is not very interested in the babies, but he likes them because he can get away with more things while we are busy with the babies.
To help them gain weight a little faster, I am breastfeeding them, then pumping and giving them a bottle of my milk right after. They have been gaining weight well and are doing amazing!
We are in for a ton of fun at our house for many years to come!

They're Here!

We finally had our twin boys! They are so much fun to hold, look at, well everything with them is just fun right now! They look more and more alike everyday. I went into labor Sunday night and at 5 o' clock Monday morning the Dr started my C-Section. Abram Dylan Later was born first at 5:18 AM. He weighed 6 lbs. 1 oz. Then almost immediately after, Owen Ryan Later was born, still in his amniotic sack. Technically they were born in the same minute, but they waited to count Owen until his sack was ruptured so 5:19 AM was his time. The Dr. said that the Native American Indians thought that it means that your baby is very special if it was born in its sack, because it is so rare. I thought that was pretty cool. They looked great from the beginning! They both had great apgar scores, and they each had little red "distinguishing marks" on their foreheads by their hairlines. Abram was a half of a pound bigger than Owen, and Abram's nose seemed a little bigger than Owens. We were excited to be able to have some ways to tell them apart. But then to our dismay: the marks went away, their weights started evening out, the swelling on Abram's nose went down, and then look well. . . .. . IDENTICAL! Holy cow it is hard to tell them apart! Thank goodness for the little bands on their ankles that tell us who they are! We will have some trouble with that when we get home, I hope we don't mix them up! I think Owen is on the left and Abram is on the right.
Grandma and Grandpa Baird brought the kids up to see the babies, and they were so excited! They kept asking, "Who is this?" They couldn't tell them apart either, not that I expect them to though. Their favorite part was getting to hold the babies! Abram is the one with the little bald head, and Owen has the white hat on.
I decided to throw in a picture of these adorable wrinkly legs! Owen posed so well for us to get that picture. It is a little blurry, but you get the idea.
They are eating well and they are so darn cute!! We think that they look a lot like Tyler when he was born, also some Ethan in there too. They are a good mix of Ryan and the boys. Oh, I am so excited to bring these two boys home!