Christmastime is here!

I wasn't able to do any decorating for Christmas this year since I am still on bed rest, but Cory and the kids did a great job taking over! Here they are decorating the tree. The house looks great and very Christmasy! 

Milly got groomed and we decided she looks just like Clarice from the Rudolph movie. 

We bought this blow up Santa to go out in the yard. The other night Cory decided to blow it up inside to test it out and make sure we wanted to keep it. It was enormous! It just kept getting bigger and bigger. We were laughing so hard. The picture really doesn't do it justice. 

Daddy/daughter date to the Jazz game

Halle has really been wanting to go to a Jazz game with Daddy. Friday was the night! They rode the train downtown to the Delta Center which Halle really liked.  Daddy said Halle had lots of fun at the game. Her favorite parts were watching the dancers, watching tshirts being shot up into the stands, and eating cotton candy. What a fun night!

Brave, tough girl

Poor Halle has a horrible ear infection. The doctor said it's so bad there's a good chance her ear drum will rupture. She is such a tough girl, she only started complaining of it hurting yesterday and still insisted on going to tumbling this morning before her doctor appointment. She had a little cold last week and then the last couple days got another worse cold, so I figured the ear ache was just pressure from that. But it turned out to be this really bad infection! Grandma Lori took her to the doctor since I am still on bed rest and I felt so bad when she called and told me. She also said that even with as much pain as Halle was in she was still trying to skip into the hospital through whimpering. She loves to skip everywhere she goes and is such a happy little girl! That just shows how tough she is! I feel so bad I didn't get her into the doctor first thing this morning, but she is so brave and doesn't complain when she's in pain unless it is pretty much to the point of unbearable, so I had no idea it was so bad! 

Hoping this antibiotic kicks in quick!!! 

Thanksgiving

We had a good Thanksgiving! We ate at Grandma Lori and Grandpa Sheldon's house. It was my first time going somewhere other than a doctor appt in six weeks! We had a nice, small dinner.  The kids had a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house afterward. 

As you can see in the background, the kids did lots of fun Thanksgiving art projects this year. 

Grandpa telling the story if the five kernels of corn. 

Grandma and grandpa gave the kids this singing and talking Olaf and Halle loved it!

Best friends!

Halle went with Elise and her mom to the Riverton high dance performance a couple nights ago. Wish I could have been there, I'm still on bed rest. But she had lots of fun!

Last Saturday Halle and Elise played together all day long. Elise's mom Brittany sent me this picture of all the stuffed animals they had gotten out and were playing with!

Meeting Elsa!

Halle went to her friends birthday party today, Scarlet and Simone from her preschool who are twins, and it was a princess party! And they had a very special visitor - Elsa! Halle LOVES Elsa and I'm sure was in heaven meeting her!

32 weeks!

Today I am 32 weeks along!!! 32 weeks was my doctor's goal for me when I was put on bed rest five weeks ago. Now every day we make it further is a bonus. This has been my view from the couch for the past five weeks, usually being cuddled by one of the kids, Milly, or all 3. So grateful we've made it this far!!! 

Thankful tree

For family night last week we made a thankful tree. It was fun to see the things the kids came up with. Luke's leaves are in the red marker, Halle's are in the blue pen. I'm sure thankful for these sweet kiddos of mine!

What bed rest looks like

I'm almost thru week 3 of bed rest. I'm now about 30.5 weeks along. Every week further we make it the better! At my doctor appt this week it was the first time my cervix hadn't thinned in 3 weeks so we think everything we are doing is working. 

My life is pretty simple..I go from my bed to the couch in the morning and back to my bed at night. The kids spend lots of time cuddling with me on the couch. 

This week grandma Dixie has been up staying with us all week helping out and it's been great to have her here! We are so lucky to have so much help. 

Pumpkin carving

The kids and daddy carved pumpkins tonight. The kids were old enough this year to carve their own and had so much fun doing it they each carved two! 

Pumpkin patch

Cory took the kids to the pumpkin patch tonight (and took lots of fun pictures!) As you can see Halle forgot her shoes. Running shoeless through the pumpkin patch never hurt anyone! Wish I could have been there. Bed rest stinks but is worth it! 

Halloween 2014

Halloween was a lot of fun! Luke and Halle both loved their costumes and fit their characters very well :). As you can see Halle does very princess-like poses when she is all dressed up as Elsa, and Luke turns into a Master Jedi when he's dressed up as Yoda! The kids went trick or treating with their friends next door, Brennan and Elise. Cory took the boys and Elise's mom Brittany took the girls. They both got big loots of candy! Luke loves all kinds of candy, so his bucket had lots of variety. But we had to laugh when we saw Halle's bucket full of Reeses peanut butter cups. Those are her very favorite and lucky for her a lot of people must have been passing them out! She's not much of a candy/sweets girl but she does love her Reeses.

Milly's birthday

According to my kids today is a double holiday because it's Halloween AND Milly's birthday. Oops, I had completely forgotten about the Milly's birthday part until the kids reminded me yesterday! Luke and Halle and their friends next door Brennan and Elise spent many hours decorating and getting ready for Milly's "1st birthday party." They drew pictures for her, gave her two new squeaky toys, showed her Halle's room all decorated with streamers and a lovely display of books, and we sang happy birthday to her. As you can see, this birthday dog is very patient and very loved! 

Elsa and Yoda

Luke and Halle were invited to their friends Colton and Saige's Halloween party last night so they got all dressed up in their costumes for the first time this year. 

Halle has been talking about being Elsa for months. I knew Elsa would be a very popular costume this year because every girl loves Frozen, so I found this cute costume back in September and bought it right away. It has a long sparkly train which she loves. We sprayed her hair white and out glitter in it. 

Luke decided he wanted to be "Master Yoda" as he calls him, and wanted to look as realistic as possible. A Yoda costume wasn't as easy to find. We searched high and low and finally I found the costume online on Amazon, the hat online at the Disney Store, and we painted his face green. I think it turned out really great! 

What a cute Elsa and Yoda we have :). 

Pierced ears!

This big girl turns five on Monday and wanted to get her ears pierced for her birthday. She has been talking about how she would get her ears pierced for her 5 year old birthday for months! She was brave and is so proud of her pretty earrings. 

Cuddle time

While the boys watch the game the girls are cuddled up in my bed watching Pride and Prejudice :). Love that Halle is starting to like to watch all my favorite "girl movies" with me!

Bedrest helper

Halle has been showing me some of her dance and tumbling moves. I told her I wish I was as good at dancing as she is. She answered back, "You may not be a very good dancer or very flexible, but your the best at being my mom." She's such a sweetheart. Just what I needed to hear today!

I found out today I'm going to need to be on bedrest. I'm barely 28 weeks along with the twins and we found out through an ultrasound that my cervix is thinning out more than they want it to at this point. So my Doctor gave me a steroid shot today that is supposed to help the babies lungs develop more quickly and also help stop preterm labor. Luke came with me to the appt because he was home sick today and he was so cute, he was worried about me and worried that they needed to give me a shot. But I assured him I would be fine. Then they told me I need to be on bedrest to take pressure off my cervix. What a bummer. The good news is the babies are looking great. Hopefully I can just keep them in a lot longer! I'd like to at least make it to 34 weeks. I go back in tomorrow for another steroid shot and to talk to the Doctor about it some more. 

Anyway, it hasn't been long but the kids have been super cute and understanding so far. When I have to get up to go to the bathroom or something Halle even holds my hand and walks me there because she wants to help, then holds my hand to walk me back. And she sits by me and asks me if I'm doing ok. Such a sweet girl. Luke has been helping out with cleaning up and listening, and gets me water and things and reminds me not to get up because I'm on bedrest. What a cute boy. I don't want this to be hard on my kids and am just thankful I'm able to stay at home and don't have to be away from home and them at the hospital. Hopefully it stays that way!

Sweet girl

Halle was coloring a picture on a coloring board on my lap and the board and the paper fell off on the ground and made a loud noise. She said "mom, are you okay?" 

I answered that I was fine. 

She said, "Okay, good. You're always there for me, so I'm always going to be there for you." 

Awe, so sweet! Love my sweet girl. 

Little miss tricky

I looked over today to see Halle eating her lunch while sitting in the splits, just for the fun of it! She is so flexible! She has been taking a tumbling class and loves it. She is constantly practicing her hand stands, cartwheels, and back roll overs at home, it seems like she is doing them in our family room non stop! She really loves this kind of thing and is very good at it, too. She's a very tricky, talented, and limber little thing!

Play time

Halle loves playing with her little princess figurines and dolls and loves setting them up nice and neat in her princess castle. She will do this and play on her room with them for a long time all by herself. Tonight before bedtime stories I came in to find her playing and was so impressed with how nice and neat she has set up all her little figurines I had to take a picture of her with them. Then she wanted to take an up close picture of them. Very impressive work Halle!

Grandma tea party

A couple weeks ago Halle had a grandma tea party at school. Grandma Lori went and they had lots if fun! Halle was looking forward to it for weeks and had made a cute invitation for it in class. They had cookies and treats, did some fun activities, and grandma got her a book at the book fair. Then after grandma took her out to lunch at McDonalds (Halle's request) and got her a snow cone. Fun day for Halle and Grandma! We love grandma Lori! We are lucky to have such awesome grandparents who love to be involved with the kids. 

Conference Sunday drive

This weekend was conference and today after it ended it was super nice weather and the perfect day for a drive up the canyon! We got out at Snowbird and went for a little walk/hike up on a trail above snowbird. We took Milly and the kids thought it was funny how she'd run around like crazy on the trail sniffing and run way ahead. They'd get nervous that she was going to get lost but we showed them that she always comes back. They are so protective of their little pooch! 

Milly's money

When I was giving out allowance to the kids at the first of this month they asked me, "What about Milly? Doesn't she get allowance?" 

I said, no, she's s dog. She doesn't need allowance. They felt bad for her and decided to each give her a little bit of their allowance so that she has some money so she doesn't feel left out. Then next time we go to the store they said they will pick her out a new dog toy to buy with the money. They sure love this little pooch!

Preschool jungle day

Halle had a little parent jungle day on Friday where the kids made jungle animal masks and they decorated the open room like a jungle, and the kids also made binoculars for the parents to use to "spy" the kids as we walked through the jungle. It was cute. Halle was a hippo. Afterward the school had a little book fair and Halle got to pick out a book. She picked out a Doc McStuffins activity book. On the way out to the car she told me, "mom, this is the best day ever!" Love my cute girl! 

Breakfast outing

Today we had breakfast at kneaders with these munchkins. Halle kept saying the pancakes were really good, but still not quite as good as Grandpa Dave's pancakes! (She thinks his pancakes are the best in the world). Luke was skeptical of the French toast at first but once he gave them a try he scarfed them down. Cory and I had been talking about going here for French toast for awhile..it wasn't quite the peaceful morning breakfast outing we had invisioned with the two kids in their hyper morning moods, but still fun to get out as a family. Oh, and Halle was having fun snapping off photos on my phone while we were eating breakfast, including some silly selfies. We're trying to take advantage of getting out and about before we have two babies in tow everywhere we go!