Happy Birthday Kathryn Til!!

I can't believe my little girl is two years old! She has been such a joy in our lives and continues to grow and develop so much every day.  We had a great birthday for her at kangaroo zoo and I will post pictures soon. She was so excited for her party to start all week. Every day she would say "Kangaroo on Sat!" We sang happy birthday to her every chance we could and by the end of the day she was singing it to herself. The last few weeks we have been asking her how old she is and she kept telling us "three" and we would tell her no you are "two" and she would just smile and say "three". She wants to be grown up so fast! Here are a few of my bragging points:

*She is officially potty trained! This one she did on her own, she asked one day to use the potty and has only had three or four accidents since. She LOVES going potty, I get pretty sick of it sometimes. She thinks it is more of a game than a necessity, but I am too afraid to say "no" just in case she needs to. I guess I better start reading her "the boy who cried wolf" at nights.

*She knows all the basic colors and especially loves PINK! 

*She is OBSESSED with animals. We could go to the zoo daily and it wouldn't be enough. She knows all the animals names.

*Cheesy Eggs and "pan-i-cakes" are her favorite breakfast.

*She likes to say prayers and is starting to catch on to saying them on her own.

*Scooter rides with dad are her favorite activity.

*She is an amazing big sister to Kamaya and Ky Ky

*She still won't drink milk, but Orange Juice is her favorite drink of choice.

*Madagascar, Into the wild, Robin Hood and Toy Story are her favorite movies right now.

*She loves to read, sing and dance!

Kit is such a joy to our family and I can't imagine my life without her. I absolutely love being her mommy and can't wait to see how much she grows in the next year. 

I love you, lulu!!

Our month in a nutshell...

Well the twins are officially one month old! It has been one crazy fun month. The girls are pushing 6lbs now and starting to act more like newborns rather than babies in a womb :) They are doing pretty well on a four hour schedule and I hope it stays that way. I only have to wake up once in the middle of the night to feed them and they fall right back to sleep. During the day I get about a half hour of wake time out of them after they eat so I think they are understanding night from day. Keep praying they stay this good. Kathryn has always been a very good sleeper. I think I owe a lot of that to "Becoming Babywise" which some people think is a controversial approach to scheduling babies, but I think it works miracles and my girls are all growing and sleeping great! We have had one good scare story. I was feeding the girls last Wednesday and had them both propped up in their Boppy's and next thing I know Kamaya is arching her back and looking like she is choking, then she straightened her arms and legs out and started shaking. I immediately grabbed her and tried to burp her and got her calmed down and about 10 seconds later she started it again. This time she stopped breathing and turned purplish blue and started foaming at the mouth. I was sure it was a seizure. I called the pediatrician and she wanted us to come down immediately. After that visit she wanted us to go to the ER just to make sure it wasn't a seizure. Off to Primary Children's we went. After 36 hours of just monitoring, X-rays, CT scans, IV's and more monitoring it was conclusive that it was a bad case of Reflux. No medications yet, just make sure they are upright for a half hour after they eat, raise the crib 20 degrees and burp them often. 

Kathryn is adjusting to her new sisters well. She loves them very much.  She is 95% potty trained and loves to go on her big girl potty and wear big girl panties. I am a very proud mama. She has already nicknamed Kyler "Ky-Ky".

This is our going home from the hospital picture.

Look how small they are in these little carseats. 

This is the first time Kathryn saw them up close. I think that smile is PRICELESS. She is such good big sister!

All the girls on their boppy's! Kit still loves to cuddle in hers. Great investment!

Here is Daddy cuddling both girls at the same time. Don't mind his tired eyes. We are a little exhausted.

Here is the twins first trip to Heber. They LOVE it. Grandpa John was pretty proud of himself for being able to hold the girls at the same time.

A little picture of the two of them together.

Don't worry we are still making time to go to the zoo. Zak came with us last time and he was having fun teasing Carter (Chalise's oldest son) and Kitter.

A classic zoo picture. We Love the carousel! 

Here I am multi-tasking! Kathryn is taking a bath and I am cleaning up the tub!!

Four weeks and counting!

Just because we all need to laugh...

I stole this from my friends blog because I know anyone who reads it can totally relate! It's hilarious!!!

-I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.
-More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.
-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
- I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?
-Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.
-That's enough, Nickelback.
-I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
-Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?
-Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.
-There is a great need for sarcasm font.
-Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.
-I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.
- How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
-I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
-I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
-The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.
- Was learning cursive really necessary?
- Lol has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".
- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.
- My brother's Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads. Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, "Cuz we beat you, and you hate us." Classy, bro.
- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".
- How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?
- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"
-What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?
- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.
- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood..
- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.
- Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.
- I would like to officially coin the phrase 'catching the swine flu' to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: "Dave caught the swine flu last night."
- I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
- Bad decisions make good stories
- Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!
- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?
- If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.
- Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....
- You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.
- Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.
- There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.
- I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.
- "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.
- I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'
- I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? ), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?
- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste..
- When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.
- I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.
- Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...
- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.
- Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
- It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.
- I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
- Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it..
- My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the heck do I respond to that?
- It really ticks me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.
- I wonder if cops ever get ticked off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.
- I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
- I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.
- The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel fat before dinner.

Fun new pictures!!

Today was one of the best days since my delivery! I had such a fun birthday and owe it to Zak for making it one to remember!  I woke up and was able to go feed our girls and Kyler was such a big eater. She ate her whole entire bottle without needing the NG tube! They also moved the girls into open cribs to see how well they are going to hold their temperature.  Then he took me to get the most comfortable Glider/Recliner for the nursery, followed by a surprise dinner at Texas Roadhouse with my some of my very best friends! It was such a nice relaxing day and I am so glad Zak was thoughtful enough give me the whole day! Here are a few pictures from the last couple days...

Holding the girls together! Kamaya is on the right, Kyler is on the left.

Here they are the very first time we had them together since they were born. I bet they missed eachother so much. It was almost a full week since they were together. I think they enjoyed it :)

Daddy holding his baby girls. We can't wait to get a picture with Kathryn and her sisters!!

The cute nurses only had the girls on their graveyard shift and when they moved them into the Isolette's they wanted to make them more "homey" so they had us choose all sorts of freebies. Afghans, booties, hats. It is so cute how much all the nurses love them! This is Kyler's bed. 

Here is Kamaya's bed. 

This is just a darling picture of Kamaya. They are so tiny it is just crazy to hold them and even crazier to see the "average" size babies that come into the nursery. Even the 6 pounders look big to these girls.

This is what Kitter has been doing while we spend a few hours at the hospital... Don't worry she is having so much fun on his farm.  She LOVES to ride the four wheeler and is just so darling!

The lighting on this picture is not the greatest, but look how big her smile is.  She has so much fun down at Papa Pete's house.  There are chickens our "Huge Turkey", Cow's, Geese, and Zoey has been spending most of the time there the last few weeks because mama can't handle her :)

We are home...Kind of...

I was discharged this morning from the hospital and let me tell you I was READY!!  Last night I tried to sleep the whole night through, but due to awesome painkillers and a not so comfy bed I didn't sleep too well.  I woke up every three hours, so finally at 6 am I got up, pumped a little bit and wanted to go feed my babies, but they weren't ready due to shift change. So I decided to take a shower and do my hair for the first time in a week! It felt absolutely amazing!! 

I was finally let out of my 10x12 prison cell around noon. It was so hard to leave my babies at the hospital while I drove home.  I was so excited to get home and when I finally did I had the most homesick feeling I have felt since I was probably nine years old on a pack trip in Wyoming with my two younger cousins! Zak did a good job comforting me and sleeping by me for a couple hours then I made my first trip out to the store. We went to Target and I am afraid I overspent on baby stuff. Oh well! It made me feel better.

At this moment I am enjoying a nice quiet night by myself watching one of my all time favorite movies, Anne of Green Gables. Zak went to help his friend fix his truck in Park City and tomorrow we are going to start our new adventure with balancing time at the hospital and with Kathryn. I know we don't have a whole lot of pictures up, but things are still kind of idle. When we get new ones and hit milestones we will let you know!

mommy's first post!

It has been a complete whirlwind of emotions for this new mommy! It is crazy to think one week ago I was begging to have these babies out of my tummy but doing everything I could to keep them in. I have shed so many tears thanks to out of whack hormones and just the pure emotion of bringing these two new precious spirits into the world.  We could not have asked for a better situation for them to come into.  I have to give a shout out to Lakeview Hospital and especially Dr. Ward and his staff. I have absolutely loved being his patient and he has done an incredible job giving me information and support with my twin pregnancy.  The nursery nurses here at Lakeview are fabulous.  I had a bit of a meltdown twice with them and they have been very understanding. Lakeview has a very strict policy when it comes to letting people in to see newborns in the nursery and especially when they are premies. They only allow in parents in and if they want to bring one grandparent at a time they can. I obviously have a bit of a problem with this policy due to the fact that I have no grandparents to let in. So I asked if I could bring my sister in and they had a very firm "no" for me. Well I just lost it.  I started bawling and telling them that I don't have parents and my sister is always the one here for my emotional support. I was just beside myself and they were firm on their policy. After I had blubbered out my story and pretty much hyperventilating with my eyes swollen shut(I am a little hormonal!!) the director of the women's department came to me and calmed me down, totally understood my situation and have made the changes so I can have my support with me. I know this sounds like a completely petty story, but I can't even tell you how hard it is to be in a situation like this and not have your parents around.  I know my mom and dad are always with my girls and watching over them, but I need my physical support too. 

Kamaya and Kyler are doing SO well.  I have heard the nurses and pediatricians go on and on about how incredibly well they are doing.  I think a big part of their growing was the steroid shot I received last week.  The girls are completely breathing on their own and have been since they were about three hours old.  They had their IV's taken out today and are eating out of a bottle fairly well.  We are going to put an NG tube in just to get them up to their optimum feeding amount.  Which means we only need to feed them about 5ml through the tube.  They are currently supposed to get about 20-25 ml's a feeding. The other great thing about having them in the NICU is it helps them get on a good schedule right from the beginning.  They are eating every 3 hours and not learning any bad habits when it comes to "snacking".  I have to admit I am having my own personal issues with my decision to not nurse.  I know this is a very personal and passionate issue, and I have chosen to not have the stress of feeling like I need to be pumping and nursing while trying to recuperate and be a mom to Kit.  As far as my recovery I am doing fairly well.  I have heard people say they LOVE C-sections and I am going to say I don't LOVE them.  I feel like I have had a much harder time recovering from this birth than from my vaginal.  Granted I have had a couple complications.  Usually when you have a C-section you have a very minimal amount of bleeding.  I on the other hand have had more than normal.  Infact they have to give me medication to stop the bleeding and I am going to get a transfusion this afternoon because my levels are just way too low.  I believe my mom had similar complications with her deliveries.  So my blood pressure dropped to 40/20 during my delivery and it has been fairly low the last few days.  I am hoping this transfusion will get me feeling perkier and happier.  I will let you know!

Well I know this is kind of a boring post and a little look into my neurotic new mommy head, but I just feel like I needed to get some of my emotions out let you all know I am doing great and absolutely loving all my girls.  They are all perfect and growing well. I am enjoying the time at the hospital and I know life is going to be crazy busy when I get out of here.  I love you all and thank you for all your support and love. We will continue to update you on our crazy life! 

PS. Isn't Zak amazing? I just have to let you know he is the one who has been updating the blog, taking care of his bride and making time for all his girls.  He is AMAZING and I could not be luckier. Also I need to give a great big thanks to Grandma Jackie.  She is taking care of Kathryn and I don't know what we would do without her!!