The best...

I love them.

The ZOO!!

So a week or so ago Brandt had the whole weekend off (I know, a day off??? Who'd a thunk it?!?). We decided the boys needed to have their first trip to the fancy, schmancy Hogle Zoo. We love the zoo and hope that they will, too, one day.

Charlie pretty much missed it. He had to sit in the back of the stroller so he couldn't see much so what do you think he chose to do instead?? Can't blame him.

Dylan was awake the whole time, though. I don't know that he realized there were animals and thought we were just going for a longer walk.

Brandt tried to convince me we didn't need a picture of all of us but I told him that one day he will be glad that I made that nice lady take our picture. Fun, fun. I'm sure next year the boys will think the zoo is a little neater than they did this time around.

Um....help!

So here on the home front we are busy trying to teach Dylan & Charlie to go fall asleep on there own. They have been awesome sleepers but I have been bad and I rock and sing them to sleep. I have decided it is time and have let them cry themselves to sleep for 2 days now. It will go away, right? The crying that is. I think it is turning into shorter amounts of crying but I'm not 100% certain cause I will put them down and go far, far away so I don't have to hear it. It just kills me! I've decided it is ok for me to rock and sing to them for 10 mins or so each and then just put them in the crib. Dylan, my little climber, has learned to pull himself up so he will stand at the edge of his crib and just scream. Oh, it is so tough to just walk away. I have waited this long to do this because I haven't wanted them to wake each other up, but I figure they'll learn to just ignore each other. Once they can talk it will be funny to hear them say things to each other like, "Charlie, shut up! I'm trying to sleep!", or how about, "Hey Dylan, I bet if you put your foot there, and reach over to that, and then just fling yourself, you'll end up in my crib and then we can play!". Can't wait for that one, little smarty-pants.

The next hurdle is sippy cups. I'm trying to get my boys used to a sippy cup so I can transition to whole milk in about a month (can I tell you how EXCITED I am to not pump anymore?!?). Any secrets? I've tried a bunch of things but nothing has worked super well. But then again, I may not be giving it enough time to see if it truly is working. Patience, what is that? What worked for you?

Things are good around here. My mom & dad are back from the mission and I have been spending as much time as I can helping them to put there house back together. It flooded about a month before they were to get home. Everything had to be boxed up, moved out, and everything replaced. Nice that everything is new, but they have a boatload of STUFF! C & D are glad to be hanging out with Grandma & Grandpa though, and I'm sure the feeling goes the other way, too.

Better get back to doing something productive while I still have a few minutes left of naptime. If you have any advise on the sleeping or sippy cup dilemma, please pass it on.

Baths

I love, love, love my sweet babies faces after we're done taking a tubby. I don't know what it is, but I just think they look so cute all wet and clean. I finally took some pictures of them right when we were done with bath time the other day. Are they not precious?!? Seriously, I have the best babies EVER!!!

This is obviously not after the bath, but I thought it was cute. This is the "play thing" I referenced in the post below.

Busy, busy boy

Oh my! That little Dylan kid is just a terror! He has me on my toes at all times. There is nothing stopping my fearless child. It is only moments before he is running all through my house and having his hands in everything! Dylan has been army crawling for awhile now and that is not enough. He is now trying to climb EVERYTHING. He climbs up me, the couches, their humidifier, and now his new favorite, his exercise/play thing. He has been unsuccessful in getting to his feet (he'd pull up and make his back into a big "C" because he couldn't get his knees under him) when he'd try to stand but that is no more. Yesterday we learned how to not only get our knees below us but up to our feet. He pulls himself up on his play thing and will play with the toys for awhile and then Ka-Boom, we fall over. He fell into the toys, into the base of the play thing, into the wall, you name it, he hit it! Because Dylan has my coloring, I'm sure throughout his toddler years he will be covered with bruises. Here goes nothing. There is no turning back at this point. Dylan is on the move and nothing is going to get in his way. He can crawl over it, you see! What a turkey.

Been awhile...

It's been awhile since I've updated but we have been very busy. We've had my first official Mother's Day:


Dylan has been busy army crawling all over the place:

Brandt & I snuck away for the weekend kids free! I surprized him with a trip to Vegas for a couple days of rest and relaxation and to see Flight of the Conchords. I must send my thanks to the Grandmas for being brave and taking on two babies at once for 24+ hours each! Not an easy task. I brought my camara with me to capture the wonderful weekend but I hardly used it. Here is the sweet ride we had:

We were spoiled and got hooked up with a suite with a monster jetted tub and best of all got to enjoy Sunday Brunch. I tell you, that is the whole reason we make it down to Vegas now. Bally's puts on the ultimate feast Sunday morning. If you are a seafood lover (unfortunatly I am not) they have king crab legs, lobster tails, and sushi. For the meat lover they have every form of meat, ham, duck, sirloin, lamb, tenderloin. They make omelets fresh with whatever you choose, salads, fruits, waffles, pancakes. And my personal favorite, an array of desserts (nothing like cheesecakes, crepes, ice cream, creme puffs, eclairs, etc at 10am!). Mmmmm, mmmmmm, mmmmmm. It was awesome to get away and I did surprisingly well being away from my babies. It was a reminder of how much I love my husband and also how much I love my babies. It was a perfect weekend.

The bambinos turned 9 months yesterday. I had to have activity days at my house so I was frantic cleaning and putting together an activity so we didn't have a photo shoot. Here are some recent favorites, though:

8 months tomorrow

Holy cow, where does all the time go? My babies are 8 months old tomorrow. They are getting so big and getting so fun. They are busy, busy boys and they aren't even crawling yet! I keep trying to prep myself for the future because I know as soon as they are a little more mobile I will be in for it. In the meantime, I just enjoy sitting and playing with them and their toys.

Here are some pictures of them. Dylan is such a card when I pull out the camera and Charlie turns into Mr. Serious. This first picture of the boys notice that there are pants in front of them. Yes, those are Dylan's pants that he squirmed out of. He is so wiggly and so skinny that pants just slide off of him. It's a constant battle to keep socks and now pants on them. They make me laugh.