June and July have been amazing. We have been so blessed. 

We tried all the traditional ways to fix the flat spot on Chase's head. We did physical therapy and did his exercises every day trying to teach him to turn his head to the rounded side, but he is so stubborn he wouldn't do it! After a few months the doctors weren't seeing much progress, and his face was starting to look like a mini hunch back of notre dame disney version,  and decided that a helmet would be beneficial. Some new research is coming out that says they don't work as well as we think they do, but it's sure working for us (at $2,500 it better be working, am I right or am I right). They measure the symmetry of his head from the left front to the right back, and the right front to the left back. It started out at a difference of 8 (I'm not sure what the scale is, I always forget to ask) and now a month or so later it's a 2! His forehead, ear and ear are moving back into place. He has another appointment this week, we'll see how it goes. 

For the record, Rachel at Hanger Clinic is amazing. She is always willing to take a look at Chase when I think something is going wrong, especially those first few weeks when the helmet wasn't sitting right because it was a little too big for him. 

 His first day, was he ever that little?

 See what I mean by crooked?

He had it really tough the first couple of days. He didn't like it very much, but by the end of the week it was normal to him and his neck was getting stronger and stronger. The first time he rolled over with the helmet scared me. I came in the check on them and he was face down because his neck wasn't quite strong enough lift and turn so the helmet could get clear of the bed. I turned his head for him, I had to do that every time he fell asleep for at least another week before he could do it himself.

Spoon feeding is going really well now. I don't know if I just completely forgot what it's like to teach a baby to take a spoon, or if Jacob was so easy, but these two didn't want anything to do with it for a more than a week. I was so frustrated. They were hungry! The bottle wasn't enough for them anymore, they needed some solid food and they weren't taking it. But finally, they got it. I tried cheerios and puffs but they didn't like them so much, they just stuck their tongues out at me. And sweet potatoes, they clamped their mouths shut. What is this crazy baby strength? 

 For awhile this is all I could get out of Chase for a smile.

 They are so easily distracted. Whether it's Jacob or each other. 

 See? What was that noise?

Ah the spoon. I should just get two spoons, but this is more fun for me so.

The dog always gets too close. It's a risk she's willing to take to lick up the mess.

Riley is starting to do the worm crawl, and Chase is rolling around and scooting on his back like crazy. With both of them, nothing is safe anymore. Every time you pick Riley up she does this funny thing with her legs, she squats in the air. Riley razzes and says bwah bwah bwah, and Chase is just starting to razz. He was so proud of himself, it was so cute. He would razz and then smile, then razz and then smile at himself. Chase is doing everything Riley does just a month later. Chase just screams, whether he's happy or sad it doesn't matter, he has one volume and it's screaming at the top of his lungs. Jacob likes to talk back in the exact same language, screaming at the top of your lungs. They love Jacob, they watch him and laugh at him all the time. Jacob loves them too, and doesn't ever intentionally hurt them. I turned the corner once to find he had taken Riley out of her exersaucer and was trying to put it on top of her. You'd think I'd learn by now to not leave him alone with them, and I never am out of ear shot or gone for more than a minute or two, but for goodness sake. Jacob is trying to jump and sang his first song today, Frozen's "Let it Go".  He's also starting to really use his words, which is fantastic. He copies me in everything, even wearing my shoes. Riley is getting a tooth, and she has the best belly laugh when you tickle her on her stomach and neck rolls, or attack her with kisses. 

Other happenings of July

 Poor Indy

 Notice that Chase is screaming

 Why is it too much to ask for a smile?

 Whatever works, right?

 He has been such a good helper.

He was just a little scared of the thunder and lightening. More curious than anything. Going to bed when it's still light out is hard, but when something big is going on it's almost impossible.

More to come, all about selling our home and buying a new house, and Jacob's second birthday party!

Five Year Anniversary: Monterey

It feels like we haven't taken a vacation in forever, maybe because we've been having babies for the past three years...When you think about life with an eternal perspective 5 years is not very long, and we did a lot of things in 5 years.

Since we've gotten married we both earned our bachelor degrees, we bought a house, we bought one car and a van, we have a dog and a cat (the fish died of old age), and we had three babies. We have served in many different church callings, from nursery and Primary, to Relief Society and Elders Quorum, and Young Womens and seminary. Robbie has now had two jobs, and I never really had a full time gig besides being a mom, I just did the small stuff like clowning and piano lessons.

The last vacation I remember was when I was hugely pregnant with Jacob, and we went with our friends to Tahoe. That was over two years ago. Since then we've had Jacob at his grandparents house for the weekend, but we never went anywhere or did anything. And by the time he was old enough to spend the night at his grandparents we were pregnant with the twins. It's been a sleepless, loud, and dirty three years. Wonderful, yes, but Robbie and I needed a break. A nice, long, kid free break.

So we dropped the kids off Thursday afternoon and headed to Monterey. We didn't call home until we were on our way back Sunday afternoon.

We stayed at this beautiful place, and since we treated it like a second honeymoon we kind of went all out and got a room with a view. We slept in, and didn't have any kind of schedule other than our own. We ate when we were hungry, and the food was so good. We slept when we were tired. When we just wanted to sit and enjoy the view we did. We had breakfast in bed every morning and watched the seals playing in the kelp. We went to the aquarium, and split it into two days because that's what we felt like doing so we didn't feel like we had to cram and see everything in one day. I got a massage. We went to see the new Jurassic World movie. We walked Cannery Row over and over.

We prayed about moving to Clovis, and the answer most definitely was yes. When you think about how cool it is how the apostles and prophet all have to come to the same answer, and that's how you know it's from God...doing that with your husband is almost cooler than that.

We also prayed about having a fourth child. God works in mysterious ways. This is the second time that He's done this to me. The first time was when Robbie and I had been dating for six months and it was either time to end it or time to get married, and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I prayed about it, and the answer I got was not the answer I wanted. When I asked "am I supposed to marry him" I very clearly heard the word "no". It's really kind of scary the first time you hear a voice in your head that wasn't yours, but I knew that this was God answering my prayer. So being me I asked "why?" Asked probably isn't the right word, I begged to know why and I got nothing, just silence and a calm feeling like if I followed through with this answer everything was going to work out. So we broke up, and a week later I realized all on my own that I didn't want to live without him. So I prayed again, asking "are you sure? Now I know I want to marry him, is the answer still no?" And what do you know, now the answer was yes. I see what He did there. He knew how to get me to come to know what I wanted all by myself. Like a teacher that knows all the answers and knows exactly which questions and problems you need to get you to figure out the answers yourself.

God did the exact same thing this time around. Before Robbie and I asked together, we asked separately, you know, doing our part to ponder and stuff. Well we both got separate answers. His answer was no, and mine was yes. I was heartbroken. How can we be getting different answers? And as I was thinking about it I realized I didn't really want any more kids, but that if God said to have more I would (but I really hoped His will was mine instead of the other way around). When we prayed together we got a really weird answer, a feeling of "you are done, for now." God did it again, helped me figure out what I wanted and then tested me to see if I would do His will.

We'll just have to wait and see.

After two days we were missing our kids. It was such a wonderful vacation, being together just the two of us, reconnecting and recommitting ourselves to each other...but we missed our little family. We aren't complete without them.

Six Months and an Almost Two Year Old

The twins turned 6 months old last month! They are the size of most 3 month olds, but that's okay.

I probably wouldn't notice if I wasn't going to so many doctors appointments, but they are developmentally behind by about a month because they were born three weeks early. I can't help but think part of it is me too. With Jacob I spent every minute he was awake cuddling him and doing baby exercises or involving him in what I was doing, with all three now and trying to get our house ready to sell and find a new home I do not spend every one of their waking minutes doing baby exercises.

Riley is definitely getting things faster than Chase, which is kind of hilarious to watch. Riley is our happy mellow child, she reminds me of a hippie. Her motto would be "everything is good". When she does cry it's the most pitiful little wail you've ever heard. Chase is our dramatic child. Everything makes him SCREAM, not just cry, but blood curtailing SCREAM.

They are both now rolling all over the place, and often times into each other which they don't like so much. I will put them side by side so they can play with each other, but they end up opposite of each other and crying because they are both getting kicked in the face. One time I came over to see what all the fuss was about and Riley was gnawing on Chase's foot and he was really upset about it.

Jacob is so amazing with them, he really has taken the big brother role to heart. Every time they cry he immediately goes over and asks something that sounds like "Are you okay?". I ran to check on why I was hearing gagging noises and he was shoving a spoon down Chase's throat, just trying to help feed him I guess. He takes rags and wash cloths and helps wipe up their spit up and formula drips and food (Indy helps in that department too). He helps me take out the trash by holding on to it and pulling me along. He also "helps" me carry the babies across parking lots by holding onto one of the car seat handles instead of my hand since both of my hands are occupied. He plays peek a boo with them, and does everything and anything to entertain them.

The first time Chase laughed at Jacob was in the orthopedic's office. A lot of firsts seem to happen there since we are there so often, like Jacob opened his first door there and Riley started putting her hand to her mouth like a little indian (just not making the noises). They laugh at the craziest things, like my hands going into the air, and basically anything Jacob does. They love being tickled. And they smile so big they take up their whole itty bitty baby face.

Chase's helmet is going okay...it's a little big so it's turning on his head which kind of defeats the purpose of fixing his flat spot, but we're going to give it a few more weeks before we ask for a new one. The foam pads we've put in it seem to be holding it in place well enough, the orthopedist hopes he'll grow into it soon so they don't have to make a new one.

Jacob has several new favorite words and phrases. He still favors "where did it go?" but now he's added "okay" and "are you okay?" He also loves "baby". He wakes up in the morning, "Baby? Baby?" He tries to climb up into their cribs to make sure they are there. He tries to help feed them, and take a couple bites of their baby food. The look on his face when I let him have a bite of their carrots was priceless. "This isn't applesauce", and he then went for another bite! "Mo? Mo?" instead of "more". He sits where they sit, lays where they lay, kisses them, hugs them, helps burp them, tries to play with them by giving them toys (and taking them away) and trying to get them to laugh and smile at him. Jacob is still so happy, always wanting to say "hi" to people and be their friend. He's starting to cry and whine a lot though...

The twins didn't like the spoon very much to begin with. I know Jacob was ready for food well before I was ready to feed him, but with the twins it was the other way around. But now they're getting the hang of it. And because they are eating real food now they are getting more on a schedule of breakfast lunch and dinner because they are hungry at those times instead of random times! Which is amazing because on most days I can get all three of the kid's naps synchronized! Win.

It takes us all day to get anywhere, and I have to literally pack everything. I have two diaper bags, and leave one in the car in case I run out of things in the one I bring with me. I take my giant monster of a stroller everywhere.

These children are getting cuter every minute. I love them.

One last story. I was eating lunch, and Jacob and Robbie were on the couch with me and the twins were behind us in their exersaucer things. All of a sudden I don't hear anything, and I don't know how long I haven't heard anything. I get up and come around the couch and Chase is sprawled on the side of his exersaucer and he looked dead. I froze, and said "Chase?" Robbie new that tone and ran to get him. Robbie picked him up and Chase started jumping in the exersaucer, but he was still asleep! Robbie just held him there, because now I'm crying my eyes out because I thought my child had died and laughing all at the same time because he's bouncing in his sleep. This kid is so out that he looked dead. I've never had a child fall asleep doing something like that, they almost always cry because they are tired and want to fall asleep but can't. Chase had just put his head down right where he was. Riley is laughing at us, and Jacob is patting my head asking "are you okay?" and he wiggles his way into my lap and gives me the biggest hug I've ever gotten from him and just holds me until I stopped crying. It was so scary, and so funny. I apparently freeze in life and death situations. I really need to work on that...

Anyways, enjoy the pictures!

I couldn't get them to all look at me and smile AT THE SAME TIME to save my life. If it were a life and death situation, I would have died. Thank goodness for lots of pictures, there's a good picture of each of them amongst all of them. And the funny ones. Dad was trying to help draw their eyes, but then they followed him everywhere.

 It was cuter the second before, before he realized I was behind him.

As soon as he saw me he got up and danced around. He tries to copy everything they do.

The first time he rolled over and fell asleep with the helmet on scarred me. This kid scares me a lot I guess.