Our babies are 3 months old!

 Nixon, Ashton and Weston (taken with my phone)

 Nixon and Ashton (taken with my phone)

 Ready for a walk! (taken with my phone)

Nixon and Cooper turned 3 months old yesterday! Everyday they get more and more fun and we can't imagine life without them. They are such happy babies and gives us smiles around the clock. 

We are lucky to have "identical twins" that aren't "identical". We can very much tell them apart and I love how different they are looking from each other every day.

Right now....

Cooper is starting to like the swing, but Nixon can take it or leave it.

Nixon loves the play mat and Cooper can take it or leave it.

They both love their bouncy chairs and like to fall asleep in them throughout the day.

They are both great nursers and I feel lucky to be able to nurse them!

They both like the bath and shower.

Cooper likes to fall asleep and cuddle laying in our arms and Nixon likes to be up over our shoulder.

They both love their big brothers, and are constantly getting attention from them.

Ashton and Weston can both get the babies to laugh, smile and coo.

 It is the sweetest thing to see the older siblings interact with the babies.

Our trip to Washington D.C.

Plane ride to D.C.

Just got blood drawn...Weston looks traumatized 

Ashton and his broken foot

Me, Weston, Nolan and Melanie (miss you guys!)

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 We had such a fun trip to Washington D.C. a few weeks ago. I'll be honest, I was a little apprehensive about this trip (flying with the twins at only 10 weeks) but it actually went really well. Tommy and I got a lot of nice compliments about how well behaved our kids were and how we worked well together as a team. Those are always nice to hear after a 5+ hour plane ride. We had 6 seats on the airplane so we brought the babies car seats on and they just slept pretty much the whole flight. They each woke up once to nurse and then fell back to sleep. The older boys played their ipod touches with their headphones and really just entertained themselves. Tommy and I relaxed a little and were able to read some magazines, watch some movies and play some games (we may have even caught some naps).

Throughout the week we did some sight seeing. Ashton really wanted to see the "guy on the back of the penny" so the Lincoln Memorial was on the top of our list of things to see. We also took the boys to the Air and Space Museum. Our friends moved to Virginia last summer so I was thrilled to get to see them also. We went over for an evening and let the boys play (she has 3 cute boys). It was so nice to catch up!

On Friday morning we headed back to the airport, but we had a stop to make before flying all the way home. My sisters wedding was that weekend so we flew into Utah and stayed the weekend for that. I will post about her beautiful wedding later. It was so fun to see family and friends and of course witness Shantel and Dallins special day!

This trip was a good trial run for our move to Japan. The flight time to Tokyo is about 10 hours. Definitely doable especially after flying coast to coast non-stop. And that was without help (my mom will be with us on the Japan flight). It was a stressful but fun week. We are now looking forward to family being here for the babies blessing June 3rd!



**Ashton broke his foot the day before we left. It was on a weekend so there weren't any dr's offices open-just urgent care. We had to see the orthopedist in D.C. and get it casted there. It made for a very interesting airport/security/get on the airplane experience because he couldn't walk (he was in a soft cast). But we made it and we literally jumped for joy when they put a walking cast on him a few days after we arrived in Washington.

One month and counting...

All of our focus these days is on our upcoming move to Tokyo.

The boys and I leave in one month to stay with my parents (all of June) and spend time with family and friends, then we will all head to Japan the first of July. We are lucky to have my mom fly out and stay with us for a few weeks while we get all set up. We also made the decision to sponsor/hire a nanny for our stay out there. Her name is Virginia and she will be there ready to start the day we arrive. I am so thankful for the help. Tommy and I really want to take full advantage of living in such an awesome place and help with the kids will be a necessity.

We spent this last week out in Washington D.C. doing our medical check-ups and getting all squared away for the move. We saw the city, went to the air and space museum, saw some monuments and got to visit with our friends the Evans and let our boys play. It was a fun week and I will post about it once I get my pictures ready (we all came down with colds probably from the recirculated air on the plane. We are all at different stages of our sicknesses. Hopefully we recover soon).

We can't wait for our new adventure!

Easter 2012

Today we introduced the twins to our friends at church for the first time. They are 7 weeks old today. I have been looking forward to going back to church and we made it to our 9:00 meeting on time!

I'm so glad that we could go together as a family today and hear the great talks about our Savior and the sacrifices he made for us.

Happy Easter!

Thankful for friends

What do you do when your husband is out of town, and your twins decide to get tummy aches at the same time? You improvise and take a deep breath!

That was the post I put on Facebook last night along with the above picture. Immediately I got tons of comments of support and advice. I have never felt more supported. About 20 minutes later my phone started beeping off the hook with texts from friends offering to come over and help me out with the babies. This was at 10:00 at night people...I have the best of friends.

Earlier that evening I got a knock on my door from a friend with some dinner for us. A variety of food that had my kids repeating throughout dinner "this is sooooo yummy mom!"

Today we met some friends at the park. As we were getting ready to leave they came to the car with armfuls of food for dinner again tonight! I was so shocked and grateful.

I'm not going to lie. These last 2 days have been hard. 2 babies is a lot of work! My little brother is here on spring break and I am so glad. It's nice to not be alone in the house, and he is helping so much. But doing the twins evening routine alone is a challenge and I miss my sweet husband. But we are making it.

Tomorrow's a new day!

Twins 6 weeks old and update

Tomorrow the twinners will be 6 weeks old. I am constantly getting emails, texts, facebook messages etc. asking how things are going and how the babies are growing. I thought I would address the inquiries here.

The babies are growing like weeds. They are fitting into 3+ month clothing which isn't too surprising. Nixon and Cooper were born at 36 weeks and 4 days. The doctors and nurses were astonished that they were 21.5 inches long. That is incredible for twins, especially twins born that early. So in regards to their growth, they are huge! We are hoping for 2 BYU basketball players (look out Jimmer).

They are happy babies, very easy and calm. Yes they cry and get upset, but only if they need something. We almost have them sleeping through the night. They usually just wake up once to eat, and then sleep until morning.

I'm not really a fan of having Tommy help out during the nights. I don't think it's fair to keep him up when he has to go to work in the morning. And really, what can he help with while I'm nursing? So we have a great routine going... he sleeps in the guest room and on the weekends he takes the babies and boys in the mornings and lets me sleep in. It has been working great.

I think we have adjusted really great with the twins. Maybe it's because we have experience with babies. Maybe it's because our twins are easy going. Who knows, but we aren't complaining.

Congratulations Ashton!

This cute boy just got accepted to his first international school! The Nishimachi International School in Tokyo, Japan.

This was our first choice of schools for him to go to. We applied to a few more just in case, but are so happy that this will be the one he will go to!

For the last month we have been deep in the application process for all of these schools. We are talking college type requirements for these schools. They wanted applications, essays, recommendations, family photos, individual photos, screenings and reports from his teachers this year and last, birth certificates, vaccination records etc. It has been very, very stressful.

Normally, this school requires an interview with the applicant (online or in person). But they were so impressed with Ashton that they are holding a spot for him and will just interview him in August right before school starts.

We are waiting to hear from Weston's international preschool still. Yes, we had to apply there too.

Congrats Ashton, we are so proud and excited for you!