Family Home Evening

Ok, so I thought it was kinda funny that we had to teach Jame show to play with finger paints! Aren't little boys born just knowing how to get messy? At first James would just dab one finger in the paint and then immediently wipe it off on one of our shirts. By the end we were able to get him to put his whole hand in. Way to cut loose James!! j/k :) By the way the lesson was on developing our talents! Be glad I don't have a video of the opening song.

Clara & Kate chat it up!

Here is a video clip of the girls talking to each other. I missed the best of it when I went running for our camera, but you get the idea. I hope this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship! (I'm not sure why it's tinted orange--guess I'll have to mess around with the settings on my camera when I get a chance. Until then, I guess we'll all be oompa-loompa's! sp?) The girls are getting big and learning all sorts of new things. Clara rolled over for the first time just after this video was taken--but I missed getting it on camera. :( I'm not sure if she meant to roll or if it was accidental--but hey, we're counting it! We have our 4 month check up's this week. Four months!! hOly Cow! I just got out their baby books for the first time last night--oops! I have no idea what their weight or sleeping habits were last month, or the month before that for that matter. In fact everything from the last four months is pretty much a blur. Guess I'll just have to make it up--you don't tell, I won't tell. ;) My favorite part of the baby book is where it asks what "new foods" the kid had for that month--including months 1, 2, 3, . . . Um, I'm pretty sure we shouldn't be feeding our kids any new foods during those months. Think I should tell the baby book publishers? Hee-hee. Well, guess I better get back to being a mom!

OH--quick life lesson I'll pass along--NEVER leave your car door open during a rain storm! Somehow (I'm still claiming innocence) the sliding door to our minivan got opened or left open overnight the other day. Neighborhood cats took refuge in it. YUCK! I'm allergic so you can guess how happy I was about this. I just finished steam cleaning every inch of the carpeting and seats.

That's Not How I Left You!

So the other morning I came into the bedroom after my morning workout and found Kate had turned herself around in the crib. It was too cute. She just looked up at me like, "What? What's the big deal?" :) My little girls are growing up!

Battle of the baby gear

As you can see from these photos, James is already the big brother thug and taking his sisters' toys!

James snakes his way into his sisters' play gym

Indignation of the Guilty

For Debbie

This post is dedicated to Debbie. Since she didn't believe that James actually wants to hold his sisters, here is a picture of him smiling and hugging Kate. He did this all on his own--no mommy prompts whatsoever! :) Eh-hem, James--Wake up your sister and you're in trouble little mister!

No good title for this

Well, we held on to the crib for as long as we could. When James started getting his knee stuck inbetween the rungs we knew it was time to move on to the toddler bed. OH, how I miss those days. Now James' daily "nap" is destruction time. Any good ideas for getting the boy to actually take a nap? He IS tired and falls asleep around 6:30 only to wake up at 9. Yuck. Any good advice will be greatly appreciated. Heck, we'll even take bad advice. ;) Tylenol anyone?

Labor day weekend

So, I'm a little slow, but here are a few pictures from our COLD jaunt to the cabin labor day weekend. We came home early because of the weather, but we did get some huckleberry picking in before we left. Ok, Justin and James got huckleberry picking in, I sat in the car reading Twilight (again) with the babies. :)

Cuddles

One of James' favorite new games is playing "baby". We wrap him up and give him a pacifier sp? and cuddle him like a baby. On this day he was playing baby by laying down in the girls' boppy. We decided to let him cuddle his "own" baby. It was too cute. He kept his "I'm a tough boy" poker face on, but we weren't deceived. :)

Can anyone tell me why blogspot turns my photos some of the time??!! Grrr--well you get the idea.

Carrying the girls kangaroo style!

I've been experimenting with ways to carry the girls around while I try to get stuff done. This is me with my homemade Moby wrap. The girls absolutely love it and fall right asleep. It's not so bad while they're still under 10 pounds. :) It's just a bit warm for the summer time, so I only can use it indoors.

Clark County Fair

Hum, James I'm not sure it's a wise idea to pet vampire bunnies.

James goes for a ride on a "big eyed" cow.

Doesn't look like he's going anywhere fast!

slugger

Ok, for some reason this photo comes up sideways even though it's right otherwise. But it was too cute not to up it on the blog. Looks like Clara is getting her revenge for all the times Kate kicked her in the head while they were on the inside! I don't think she actually slugged Kate . . . But who knows! :)

Blessing day!

The girls received their blessings on Sunday July 27th. Justin did a wonderful job and the girls behaved perfectly. Grandma Sarah made the gorgeous blessing gowns. It was a beautiful day.

Trip to the cabin

James looking for the perfect skipping rock on the Lewis River

Justin, Jessica, James, and one of the girls at the Cedar Flats

While Michele (Grandma Hughes) was here we got to visit my family's cabin. We hiked Cedar flats, Lava casts, Ape Caves, & the Lewis River trail. I decided I can never go hiking with any fewer than 4 people. One person to each child and one person for the back pack! The last picture is of James with his handy-dandy dust pan. He spent hours "cleaning" the cabin with this. :)

Grandma Hughes comes to visit!

Grandma Hughes does the Baby Bijorn

Grandma Hughes got to spent one wonderful week with us. We did our best to show her a good time. James was quick to corner her for reading stories. (I mean really quick--she had only been here an hour!) The girls enjoyed lots of snuggling time. By the time she left she was a pro baby bijorn-er!

Hollywood Divas

Happy 4th of July

Here are some pictures of us celebrating the 4th of July. James had a rockin' time playing with his older cousins and watching fireworks. Do you like the smile on my face? It's my "take the picture quickly before one of us gets burned" smile. I hope you all had a great day!

My sister, my best friend!

I caught this adorable picture of the girls the other day. I hope they're always so happy together.

Going home day!!!

Happy Momma!

Happy Daddy!

All loaded up and ready to roll!

Finally the day came to bring ours little girls home. Last Sunday we got to take them home. They weighed in at 5 lbs. even for Kate and 5 lbs. 2 oz. for Clara. We are so happy to have them home. They stayed 22 days in the NICU. Now we are home and adapting to real life! (The grey/blue car seats match the new double stroller we bought. We just couldn't see putting James in the front of a pink daisy stroller!)

Big brother James comes to visit

James came out to visit his little sisters. He is a great big brother. He loves to give kisses to his sisters and is very good at pointing out their noses, ears, mouth, and eyes. He loves to hold them and calls them "sissi". We've had a few moments of jealousy when he reaches for mommy to pick him up but mommy is already holding someone else!! :(

Getting ready to go home

Ahh--together is best!

Kate gets moved to her own bed

The Car Seat Challenge

In order to go home the girls had a couple tests to pass. First they had to go back to separate isoletes to prove they could maintain their temperatures. Next they had to pass their car seat challenge--prove they could maintain their oxygen levels while in their car seats. Of course they passed with flying colors!