The Canyons SD

Most of you may be aware that the Jordan School District has split. Well the new district has not been named yet and people in the district could submit possible names. Both Jim and I submitted names and Jim's might be in the top 10. I say might because they say some names had more than one entrant and whoever put their entry in first gets the glory. They will tell you if you are in the top ten sometime between now and October 21st. Anyways, Jim's name has made it into the top ten (out of more than 500 sumbmissions). Anyone can vote. Well as long as you have an e-mail address. Please go to www.nameourdistrict.com vote. Vote for whichever name you like best- we would just highly suggest THE CANYONS SCHOOL DISTRICT!

Lifestyle change

A few weeks ago Jim's dad went in for heart surgery. I have been trying to gently encourage Jim to excercise for awhile now but to no avail. His dad did the trick. Jim has been on a lifestyle change since then. Whenever I say it is a health kick or something to the effect he corrects me and says it is a "lifestyle change."
Our juicer has been put to really good use lately as we have been making all sorts of healthy drinks. Jim is exercising 5 to 6 nights a week and alternates nights between running and lifting weights (sometimes doing both). I run 4 times a week and am now up to 3 miles. I will increase up to 4 on Saturday and maybe soon will be back up to my 10 miles Saturday runs. It is amazing that even with all this exercising we have more energy, feel better and are eating much better.

Of course the most dramatic change has been only making our homemade chocolate chip cookies on Sunday afternoons instead of twice a week like we used to do:)
*This picture was taken in July on our 10th anniversary. Thus before the lifestyle change :)

M.O.M.

Almost six months ago I became a mother of multiples (M.O.M). It has been a great adventure so far. There are actually local chapters of M.O.M.'s all over. Although I have not joined I do try to make it to their twice a year fundraiser (yard sale) that they have. I wasn't going to go to the one today but then decided I would buy just one or two outfits to support the M.O.M. local chapter. Well I got there and found my couple matching outfits for way cheap. On my way out a lady stopped me and asked me if my babies were twin girls. She was a vendor and showed me a box at her booth and said I could take any matching outfits I wanted for FREE! She just really liked the fact that her matching outfits that her girls have outgrown could go to some other girl twins. Bonus!!!!
So I got everything in this picture for $17.50. I insisited I at least pay for some of the stuff. Everything but a pair of shoes and a shirt I bought for Lizzie are all two of everything for the babies. There are even cute little matching outfits that say babies 1st Christmas. Good stuff!!!
Here are the cute babies in some matching outfits we already had. Afton is the more serious one while Lilly is trying to smile. Afton's smile is so sweet but she is more picky at when she brings it out. Lilly smiles at almost anything and sometimes I think she really smiles at air :)

If your happy and you know it....

How cute are these faces? Our smiling Afton and Lilly!!!

Lilly has the bow on her head and Afton is in the stripes.

The box

Our cute little babies are 5 and a half months old already!!!! The other day I actually had to go buy our first big box of diapers from Costco. To all of you that gave us diapers as presents. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!! We had bought a few preemie diapers and while on bedrest my friend Heidi was my diaper shopper and spent about $40 for me. Otherwise up until now we had been using "gift diapers." But don't worry we have spent PLENTY of money on formula. I still nurse about half of the time but that still means we go through a lot of formula. At least $60-$80 a month on the powdered stuff. Plus within the past few days the babies have only wanted to nurse at 5 in the morning and 8 in the morning. Then they rebel the rest of the day and I give up and give them bottles. I am trying to figure out what to do about that because I really don't want to spend even more on formula. Now we get to add at least another $40 for diapers. Oh well it is preparing us for two payments of pre-school, sports, dance classes, school pictures, college, and on and on.....

Afton and Lilly are doing awesome. They love to roll over on their stomachs, reach for things (including hair) and eat their hands (and yours). Lizzie was the first one to get a real laugh out of Lilly and it was so cute. Lilly likes baby food so far and Afton not so much. Well actually Lilly likes squash. Today's peas did not go over as well. Afton really likes the exersaucer. I am trying to think of other exciting news they do but they do great just being cute and adorable.

*Lilly is in the pink and Afton is the one relaxing and chewing on her hand

Harvest Time

We have begun to harvest items from our garden. In the spring Jim was so excited to plan out his garden. Anyone who knows Jim well knows that a lot of pacing around our yard went into effect as he thought about layout, where the sun is at each time of day, design, the fence, etc. This is our first real harvest at our house. Last summer we moved in the end of June and were only able to plant peas. This year we (by this I mean Jim and the kids) planted corn, raspberries, tomatoes, assorted squashes (acorn, butternut, spaghetti, gourd, etc.), cilantro, basil, and parsley. The kids were so excited for their tomatoes because we got ones called Beefmaster, Mr. Stripey and Oregon Spring.

We have had tons of tomatoes. Since I am not much of a canning girl we have been finding other uses for the tomatoes. Luckily we have figured out how to make delicous V8 drinks from our juicer. We also made salsa last night which was delicious. Plus lots of deli sandwiches. Our corn is almost ready. I at least know how to freeze that :)

Jim and Liz go out each day and be farmers to see what they can harvest.

Here is a picture of Jim and Lilly. Our corn is already tons taller but you get the idea.

something borrowed, something blue

One of the plusses of parenthood is you can try to talk your kids into dressing up into almost anything. I got Lizzie to dress up in one of my old dresses. Here is a picture of me when I was five. Here is Lizzie in the same dress at about 4 1/2. We even did her hair in braids like in my picture but you just can't see it as well. She loves her new dress and calls it her princess dress and has already worn it to church many, many times.

On another note, Ethan had his first day of 1st grade yesterday. When I picked him up one of the first things he said was "I want to lay down, mom.!" The poor kid was tired from a full day of school. He seemed to have liked it though. He said they played the Indiana Jones theme over the intercom which he thought was cool. Lunch went okay. He said the fries were a little cold but dessert was awesome. I missed him and our house felt weird without him here. So I am now home with 3 girls all day :) Lizzie starts pre-school on the 9th so we will see how that goes. She also starts dance class on Sept. 4th.

Afton and Lilly are doing awesome. I will post some pictures of them later. Lilly has found her feet and loves to grab them and is so close to laughing. Right now it is a squeal, scream type thing. She has also found her hands and likes to move them around in front of her face. Afton absolutely loves rolling over and will roll to her stomach at every opportunity. They are both grabbing onto toys which is fun to watch. They are also eating rice cereal. I have forgotten how time consuming feeding baby food is.