dallin's preschool graduation

Dallin just loved Miss Christi's Preschool. It was sad to see the two years end. (Although with all the boys in that class I'm not sure she was all that sad!)

He became part of a group she called,

"The Three Musketeers".

I loved picking Dallin up each day to hear all about Tate & Tommy. (Some days I dreaded it...depending on what kind of stories he was reporting!) Dallin didn't know a soul when he went to school, so it was fun to watch him make his own friends... and he stuck with them like glue. From the reports I got, you'd never know there were any other kids in the class aside from those three boys!

Carter & Ella came along to support Dallin in the grand accomplishment!

one

Happy birthday Allison Gable & Auburn Harrison. I can't believe a year has gone by. And wow, what a year! I'm still catching my breath. Everyone always told me, "The first year with twins is all a blur." And now that it has come and gone so quickly I can see what they are talking about.. but yet in that blur I have some vibrant, clear memories and images that I hope will not go hazy.

*Remembering the color codes for who eats on what side on what day. (I would switch off who wore pink every other day. Whoever wore pink ate on the right.)

*Stacking my swaddled babies one on top of the other to carry them around in the middle of the night.

*The giant pink nursing pillow that we thought would plague our family room forever.

*The attention we got every time we carried around their pink and brown carriers.

*Having to explain to everyone "No, it's not a boy and a girl" even with pink dresses and bows.

*Clogging the halls at church with all the women that had to get a peak at the twins.

*Their blinged out Converse shoes.

*No matter how far away from each other I put them, they always woke up with their heads together.

Now that I actually try to go back and think of things, it is more of a blur than I remember... It has been a lot of work, so most of the memories are of trying to smile and laugh at the challenges that two babies pose (not always successfully). But coming into this next year I'm already dying laughing at how fun and silly these two are going to be and what a different dynamic it will be going through it with the both of them together.

We didn't do much for Allison & Auburn's birthday. (Dallin & Ella were both sick for their first birthdays.... so why mess with tradition, right?) But, since they share a birthday with Sydney.. we couldn't pass up a little cake mess! Karen gave them puppies that bark and flip.. a huge hit of course!

...and yes boys, you've been caught!

take me out to the ball game

This was our first year of T-ball and it turned out to be a good sport for Dallin. It was fun to be on the same team as some of his friends, cousin, and the coolest coach around! (I don't know who was more into the game... Dallin or Troy!)

Dallin even made the "All-Star" Team.

When told, Dallin's response echoed our thoughts exactly, "How am I on the All Star Team?"

Not that being the smallest kid on the team means you can't be good... there are just so many kids out there that "get it" already...the sliding into bases, growling when they make an error, that"we will, we will rock you" competitive spirit. And Dallin's still following his mom's "cartwheels in the outfield" playing style...just havin' a good time.

So I liked how they chose the All Star players this year; instead of the coaches picking the best players, they let the kids vote for who they wanted to be on the All Star team instead. So popularity over athletic talent... sounds good to me! :)

Dallin's uniform was so big I decided to take in the seams a smidge... A smidge became so much that the team logo ended up being under his armpit instead of on his chest!

My favorite play of the game was when Carter was up to bat and made it to first base. The next kid up to bat hit it right down the middle where Carter was running to second. Seeing the ball, and sensing his perfect positioning, he stopped mid-run, caught his teammates ball, threw it to first and got his teammate out, then continued running to third. Karen had tears from laughing so hard. Way to go Carter! What a team player...

The Cheerleaders!

mella

I don't have any cousins my age on the Farnsworth side... neither does Maryella. As a child, Maryella was very ummm.. "spirited". She must have been 6 or 7 and was giving everyone in the family fits at our reunion, so she became my special charge. Being a teenager and accused of the same "spiritedness" as Maryella, we bonded immediately. And I think we've had a pretty cool relationship ever since. Even though she towers over me now, and is this amazing young adult...I still like to feel like the "cool older cousin" who gets to hang out with Mella.

My kids were huge fans too when she took them swimming at GG & Gpa Farnsworth's!

baby proof

I was delighted hearing such cheerful sounds come from the kids' room. Allison and Auburn love playing with the older ones and it was nice to have a minute with free arms to be productive. Well, the babies started pulling all the pajamas out of Ella's bottom drawer...Dallin and Ella found it so funny they joined in by pulling every article out of every drawer and making giant piles, burying the babies. The picture does not do the mess justice! Well, my productive minute turned into an hour of refolding and organizing drawers....with babies unfolding as fast as I could fold. And I wish this were an isolated incidence.

Sunday morning I was making breakfast and Allison and Auburn completely emptied the first two shelves of the pantry. As I was in cleaning everything off the pantry floor, they pulled out each DVD and video we own, and dumped them out of their cases. So I spent the next 30 minutes matching Book of Mormon videos to their correct cases. It didn't help that each time I would find a video-cover match, Dallin would decide that's the movie he wanted to watch and pull it out of the case...over and over. Meanwhile, the unsupervised toddlers have pulled out all the toy bins from their shelf and dumped them. Next, my jewelry from the bathroom counter, breaking yet another beaded necklace. I literally spent the entire morning walking from disaster to disaster. You would think after a few incidences I would lock them up or something.. (the kids or the cabinet doors - take your pick). I was spoiled with Dallin and Ella because they never got into things, so I never had to mess with those silly locks that are so annoying each time you need to open a drawer or cabinet. But I think it's time. We need to baby proof!

mother's day

Dallin & Ella helped me make Roberta a

"Breakfast in Bed"

Mother's Day basket..homemade granola, zucchini bread and freshly squeezed grapefruit juice.

The last few Mother's Days have been quite memorable. Two years ago we had about 20 people from both Troy's and my family over for dinner and Karen was one day away from delivering Sydney. We were all so happy go lucky, we would have never known what the next day would bring.

Last year we had the same large group for dinner and I was days away from having Allison and Auburn. I craved Horchata, so we had a fun Mexican evening with Black Bean Enchiladas and Cinnamon Fried Ice Cream. We even had a small house fire when my darling luminaries on the table went up in flames.

This year our numbers dwindled and out of the 6 mothers we usually have in attendance, we only had one... ME! (Although, true to tradition, Whitney was close to having her baby as well.)

We also had Maryella and the newly engaged Christine & Josh, which was a special treat! We ate Angel Chicken and Rice, Bacon Wrapped Green Beans, a beautiful Strawberry Spinach Salad, and Coconut Creme Cookies with Sorbet...all prepared to honor our absent mothers. Happy Mother's Day.

coco

Today was Cole's big Numero UNO!

Karis & Jace had the dance studio all decked out for the party. I'm sure Cole appreciated all the time and effort it took! :) We even dressed up for the occasion!

The kids had a blast in the little swimming pool... even though their skinny little bodies were convulsing with shivers.

They just love being around all those Stapley cousins! And they are growing (and multiplying) so quickly! (Congrats to Hilary & Preston)

Happy Birthday CoCo!

fathers & sons

Not being there, I can only assume they had a great time. I was just glad they came home safe and actually remembered to take some pictures.

little whitney

Just like their Aunt Whitney!

It's like they can sense from any part of the house when that dishwasher door lowers. They come crawling full speed ahead to climb up and help unload the dirty dishes I am desperately trying to load faster than they can toss out. Such big helpers!

kacy marie

Kacy was visiting from Baltimore for just a couple days so we really tried to make the most of it!

They really are a dangerous threesome.. I'm so glad they have a least one female voice of reason between them.

I looked like I was driving a clown car unloading all the kids at the Tball game. Six children all in car seats..gotta love the minivan!

Ella loved having an older girl cousin to play with... So we made tutus and danced. I love the picture where Ella is just gazing at Kacy.. completely enamored! Kacy looks thrilled. (Tyler and Carter part II) It was even better when Sydney came and got her groove on!

We had a great time with Kacy and sent her home nice and sick throwing up with the stomach flu so she could be taken care of by her own mother. I love being an aunt!

super glue

These are the casualties of just the last three days. And this doesn't include the mountain of magazines, books, boxes, etc. the twins have managed to gnaw through. Decapitated dolls, amputated heroes, assorted broken beads... can we just stop the breaking...please!

Where's the super glue?

sick kids

I loathe having sick kids. The only thing worse than having sick kids is having to get stuff done while you have sick kids. I wish I would have written about this day right when it happened because me memory has blocked out the nightmare. All I remember is being in the middle of presidency meeting with screaming kids who were supposed to be asleep... having to leave everyone there watching my other kids while I took Miss 104.3 and Miss 103.5 to the doctor. I even gave the babies chocolate chip cookies just to quiet them down through the rest of my meeting. I did love that Dallin just wanted to rest all day in his bed. I have the recording of Great Aunt Erma telling the story of "Peasy & Beansy" on my computer so we hooked up the monitors so he could listen to her stories from the other room.

bounce- u

Bryan was the hero of the weekend when he invited the whole family to Bounce U. Because his dad owns the place, we had it all to ourselves. The kids had a blast and the adults ended the night with some rigorous competition in the obstacle course. That's when the claws came out. There is no "brotherly love" (or sisterly, for that matter) in our family competitions. Karen had me hanging upside down over the wall by my ankle just to get ahead.. typical cheating Karen! And Troy and Bryan are still barely on speaking terms as to who won their match. :) We were all laughing so hard despite the scrapes and burns (and hurt egos for some.. not me of course, but some). Sydney always keeps things interesting and decided to throw up all over. Poor Karen looked a mess. But as always, she just went on like this happens all the time (which I guess, to some degree, it does with Sydney) They cleaned up and were back to party the night away. It's always more fun when Karen's there. And rain or shine, she's always there...

Allison loves bonding with Uncle Neil...

it's because they have the same hair cut!

(Maybe I should make him some headbands.)