Baby Sign

We have been working with the twins for a little while now on sign language. I want them to be able to communicate with me without whining, especially since there are two of them. Tonight Jenna was sitting in her high chair, and I walked over to her holding a bottle, and she did the sign for milk. I thought, "Wow, it looks like she is signing milk! But she's way too young to be doing it." But she did it 2 more times when she saw her bottle. Scott and I were freaking out! It was so adorable and exciting, watching her cute little chubby hand sign milk. What a cutie-pie!

Prayers for Eliah

Eliah is the baby of a woman on one of my motherhood message boards. He was born with hemophilia and has endured so many hardships in his short little life. He is once again in the hospital, this time for severe hypertension. This combined with his hemophiia puts him at a very high risk for strokes. Please remember him and his family in your prayers. Their blog is http://eliahjames.blogspot.com/ .

Easter

I hope everyone had a great Easter! We definitely did. We got up bright and early to see what the Easter Bunny had brought, and then ate a yummy Easter breakfast and headed to church, which was amazing. Then we went to Scott's Dad's house for Easter dinner. What a beautiful day it was!

dying Easter eggs (please excuse the lack of clothing)


my new favorite pic






Easter egg hunt




The Easter Bunny came to our party!


I love him!


Tim and Clover


Uncle Tim and Jenna


Daddy and Ryan

New Tattoo

I have been wanting another tattoo for a long time (they are so addicting!), so I went and got one this morning! It is obviously for my kids' names, and it is on my wrist. I think that it was more painful than any of my other tattoos that I have on my ankle, back, foot, or lips (permanent cosmetic tattoo). It's a good thing it didn't take very long!



Also, check out the latest Macey-ism about the carrots (on the right side of my blog), it is so freakin hilarious!

Girl's Night

Last night I got to go out for a much needed girl's night. My sister's Summer and Lisa and my sister-in-law Alexis and I went to see Alanis Morissette. It was so amazing! Alanis is so talented, and listening to her sing took me back to high school, curling my bangs and getting ready for school. We had such a blast together, I don't know if we stopped laughing all night long. The best part of the concert was when Alanis did her version of "My Humps". I am not a fan of Fergie, so it was hilarious to see Alanis make fun of her. Here's a video of it if you haven't seen it.

Roland "Bud" Smith

Roland J "Bud" Smith, 78, of Nampa passed away March 11, 2008, of natural causes. He suffered several health issues in the past three years, but endured them with uncomplaining grace and dignity. Funeral services will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, March 15, at the Nampa West LDS Stake Center, 1500 Smith Ave. A viewing will be held at the church, Friday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. and Saturday morning at the Church from 10 to 10:45. Funeral arrangements are being provided by Zeyer Funeral Chapel, Nampa.
Roland was born in Ogden, Utah, on Jan. 23, 1930, to Roland B and Clara Walker Smith, who preceded him in death. As a young child he moved to Boise and graduated from Boise High. He married Iris Hansen on Oct. 30, 1953, in the Idaho Falls, Idaho LDS Temple. They have made their home in Nampa for the past 49 years.
In 1955, Roland graduated from BYU with a BS in accounting. He received CPA license #327 and has held that for many years. He was a senior partner in a Nampa CPA firm for 35 years. During this time he was a guest lecturer at the College of Idaho and the University of Colorado. He was also an Ad Hoc Teacher in a night class in taxation at BSU. He was called by the governor to help draft the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights and to be one of three men on the State Board of Tax Appeals.
Roland served on many community committees including education, airport and mosquito abatement. He served as Lions Club President, Rotary Club President, Chamber of Commerce President and other leadership positions in those clubs. He was awarded the Idaho Chapter of Certified Public Accountant's Public Service Award and entered in the national awards program.
Roland was an instrument rated private pilot and also received an honorable discharge from the US Navy as an aviation electrician. He was able to do many handyman things and his children loved to have him help them in their homes. He loved history, genealogy, motorcycles, automobiles, woodworking, photography, travel and lately, the History Channel.
Roland was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all of his life. He served in many leadership and teaching positions. He served a mission to Great Britain as a young man and also served a mission in West Virginia with Iris in 2000-2001.
He supported his children in all their many and varied activities. He provided his children with many memorable experiences through family vacations and other fun family activities. Two of his travel highlights were walking the Great Wall of China and cruising the Mediterranean with Iris and other family members.
Roland is survived by his wife Iris of 54 years; his six children, Greg of AZ, Doug (Pat) of NM, Charleen (Eric) Doman of WI, Nick (Joan) of Nampa, Ken (Vicky) of Nampa, Jeanette (Bill) Andersen of VT; 19 grandchildren, Summer, Shelley, Lisa, Jared, Clint, Steven, Conner, Chelsea, Scott, Andrew, Alicia, Kelly, Ben, Jason, McKinsey, Thomas, James, Joseph and David; 12 great-grandchildren and several brothers-in-law and sisters-in law.
Most important, his six children and their families think he is TOPS. Iris says it is a JOY to be his wife. He will be greatly missed by all.
Memorial donations may be made in Roland's name to the LDS Church, General Missionary Fund, 47 East South Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84150.

When It Rains It Pours-RSVx2

God must think I am really strong, because he has just been throwing things at me left and right. First it was the news of my Grandpa's stroke, then it was the news of my hysterectomy, then my Grandpa died, and now the twins both have RSV. (I know I am complaining, but it's my blog and I can cry if I want to.)

We made it through almost the whole RSV season, but it got us at the very end. Since the twins were premie, they qualified for monthly injections called Synagis that help their little bodies build up antibodies towards RSV, so that if they get it, they won't be as sick. Those shots cost $1500 each, and they each get one a month from October to March or April, depending on many cases of RSV the CDC records. I hate to even imagine how sick the twins would be if they had not received the Synagis.

Ryan and Jenna have been pretty stuffy and coughing for the last few days, but this morning Jenna started wheezing pretty bad, so I took her to the doctor. By the time we got there, she was wheezing really really bad and retracting horribly. She was having the hardest time breathing, it was heartbreaking. So they gave her a breathing treatment and said to watch her real close, and if she gets worse, they will most likely admit her to the hospital. Ryan has a more mild case right now, but it could get worse.

On a much happier note, I am 2 pounds less than my pre-pregnancy weight. Don't hate; I earned it.

An End In Sight

DISCLAIMER: I talk about periods and my uterus in this post. If either of those topics bother you, read no further. Otherwise, carry on.

For those of you who don't know, I have had horrible female problems for quite some time. For a whole year before I got pregnant with the twins, I would be on my period for about 3 weeks out of every month. I was hoping that once I had the twins, my body would "reset" itself and I wouldn't have to deal with that stuff anymore. No such luck. I have pretty much been bleeding since the twins were born seven months ago. And I am always in pain. Some days it is so hard for me to get out of bed to take care of the kids. My doctor and I have tried so many different things. I have done several types of birth control, continuous birth control to try to skip periods, I had an endometrial biopsy in December (horrible experience), and I had a tubal occlusion surgery in January. Nothing has helped. So my doctor decided that it is just time to retire my uterus, and I will be having a hysterectomy. My uterus has had a rough ride, and I think that it is telling me that it is too tired to go on. I am nervous but I am so excited to be done with all this pain and bleeding. It affects every aspect of my life. The big day is April 2nd, so 3 weeks from today.

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers. My Grandpa passed away yesterday at 12:49 with his four sons and wife by his side. I am flying up to Idaho on Friday for the funeral. I miss my Grandpa so much, but I know that he is having the time of his life free from pain and suffering. I love you Grandpa!

Sad :(

My Grandpa Smith had a massive stroke this morning, and he is now comatose and not expected to make it through the night. I just got off the phone with my Grandma, and she is doing as good as can be expected, but very sad. Please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers, it is going to be so hard for my Grandma to be alone. I will definitely be going up to Idaho for the funeral. It will be nice to see my aunts, uncles, and cousins, since it has been a while since I have seen many of them. Also, my good friend Tricia moved to Boise over the summer, so hopefully I will get to hang out with her a bit. I hate when loved ones die, but he will be so much happier and he won't be suffering anymore.

UPDATE: He's gone. :(

Shopping again

I had to share another shopping picture, they are just too stinkin' cute!

She did it!

Oh my gosh, I am so proud of Macey! She has been in gymnastics for a little over a year now, and the class she has been in is a step higher than a preschool class but not quite level 1. Last week at gym her coach told her that she would like her to test for the level 1 class, since she has been doing so well. So Saturday we went to the gym for the testing process, and there were about 40 girls there, ages 6 to about 14 who were testing for different levels. They were tested on about 10 different things, including floor exercises, bars, balance beam, vault, pull-ups, push-ups, and flexibility. Well, little miss Macey not only had the best bridge out of the whole group of girls, but she also did more pull-ups than every other girl in the gym! She did so good on every event. The coach came to talk to us afterward and told us that she might end up skipping level 1 and going straight to level 2. So we have been so excited all week to find out what class she made it on. We had to wait all week! So tonight at gym, the coach sat down with us and told us that Macey had been hand-picked along with 4 other girls to be part of a special team called Stars, which is for the kids that are really good and they feel have a really good future in gymnastics. She will be in Stars for probably a year or less, and then they are expecting her to go straight to a competitive level 4 team! She is so excited and so proud of herself. She has worked really hard for this. We could not be more proud of her.

And in other good news, Ryan got his first tooth! It is so cute! He already bit Jenna though, so I think I have had a little taste of what things are going to be like as they get a little older. They are just too cute!

I couldn't leave out Heidi. She is also in gymnastics, and she is doing so good. Her upper body strength is absolutely amazing. Her coaches cannot believe how strong she is for such a little tiny thing! She is wanting to do some cheerleading classes, so I think we will add that into our schedule. It is so fun having little girls! I can't wait for the football games too Ryan!