Easter Fun

This year our Easter Celebrations had a new addition. Adult Easter Egg Hunts. Who knew they were a thing?

The Sunday before Easter my girls wore their Easter Dresses to church, they've been dying to wear them for weeks! 

They were so excited!!

About half way through the week before Easter a friend in another state posted a photo of she and her husband at an adult Easter egg hunt. My mind was blown!! I immediately started googling to see if there were any in my area. Happily, I found one. 

Sorry for the dark selfie, but we were super excited and antsy to start our Easter Egg hunt!! 

We had to pay a small fee to get in and each person could only grab one Easter Egg (there was a lot of candy loose on the ground), but if you were lucky enough to get one of the eggs, the rewards were good.  

Scott had egg number 2 and redeemed it for the cooler which had the corresponding number and I was egg 19 and got the air mattress. (The cute photo bombers did not come with the prizes)

Scott's sister was gracious enough to watch our girls so we could have a fun night out. We ended up taking the, uuhhh... scenic route to our destination, since I was the one driving, which made us a bit behind schedule.  Don't say anything, I am not always the best navigator... Our date night still went incredibly well and was a nice chance for us to talk and just be together. And the Easter Egg Hunt was pretty exhilarating on it's own!

Easter Sunday my parents and two of my clan of brothers and their families came over for dinner and an Easter egg hunt (the hunt was for the kids, not adults!! I ate enough candy while filling the eggs to make our whole block sick of chocolate.) My brother Andy brought a bubble machine, which really intrigued Lilly. She was more excited about that than the Easter egg hunt!

Being able to spend time with my family on Easter Sunday was the perfect ending to Easter week. 

Weekend Update

Forgive me for giving you a weekend update on Tuesday, but I've been a little under the weather.

We'll start the weekend on Friday for this posts sake so you can see the awesome lengths I will put my family through for good, free food. Thanks Chick-Fil-A for dinner!

I decided we needed to get out of the house and so I cut out lots of black cow spots, rounded up the safety pins and attached "ears" to tiaras and fox ears (from Halloween last year). Scott was quite surprised when he walked in to find his family had turned into cow costumes.  The wait wasn't too terrible and we ended up with awesome free Chick-Fil-A dinner that we took to the park for a picnic (is it a picnic when the food isn't made by you?). The sweltering desert heat (don't let the mountains in the background convince you it it isn't hot here) and the semi long line were the only drawbacks to our first Chick-fil-A free food experience and I think we'd do it again!

This weekend I also checked something off my bucket list! It may sound silly but I've always wanted to go to an estate sale. While out running errands I happened to pass a sign for an estate sale in my neighborhood. I flipped the van around so fast I'm sure the girls heads were spinning and off we went. This particular estate sale wasn't the things dreams are made of, but I have a feeling most estate sales are a little more professional and I have high hopes for the next one I get to go to (hopefully without the little one in the stroller and the toddler wanting to run from room to room trying on all the clothes and asking me to buy everything. 

Did I buy anything you ask? Why yes I did. Of course I had to buy something at my first estate sale!! Two LARGE umbrellas and a handful of scarves for the girls dress-up box. Maybe not the biggest haul or most amazing find but I'm pretty happy about it.

The weekend was rounded off by baths on Saturday night. When Abby informed me that Lilly was going to poop in the bathtub they were sharing. I, naively, brushed off her concerns since that has never been a problem with my kids. Lets just say that next time I will listen more attentively when Abby shares her sisterly insights with me (and I will not allow myself to run out of bleach ever again)! And don't worry, there are no pictures to share and thus scar your mind!

What things made your weekend memorable?

Teething Trouble

Same days I just want to go back to bed, bury my head under my pillow and come again after my kids have all their teeth! I'm always amazed when friends tell me about how easy teething was for their kids or how their kids got 6 or 8 teeth in one fell swoop and didn't teeth again for like a year. 

Those. are. not. my. kids.

My kids teeth almost constantly from about 12 months on. The Pediatrician says that's normal for some kids....

Lilly is 16 months old and only has 6 teeth. She woke up Sunday morning super cranky and I discovered two long awaited teeth coming in. We attempted church but left after about 35 minutes. She was so cranky and wasn't satisfied with anything. Not to mention that the family in front of us were collecting her toys that she was throwing on the floor, playing with them and then when the kids refused to give them back to Lilly the parents just shrugged their shoulders and ignored the situation. Hello! You know I hate it when people don't parent their children and it affects my family. Deep breaths Melody, deep breaths. After about 10 rounds of climbing into my lap, whining to get down and then instantly wanting back up on my lap only to be unsatisfied again, I had had enough. I wasn't going to do this for the next two and a half hours! Scott stayed at church with Abby while Lilly and I walked the 2 blocks back to our house.

She was content to cuddle on my lap and play simple games for the next hour before taking a nice, long nap. 

Fast forward to Monday morning and as we are getting ready to take the girls to their first swim lessons I put my finger in Lilly's mouth and discover that she actually had 4 teeth break through the gums over the weekend!

Monday was misery, the poor girl cried through most of her swim lesson and then slept through the afternoon, thank goodness!

Yesterday she just wanted to be held, ALL DAY LONG. I almost lost my mind. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids like crazy and will do anything for them but when you are trying to fit in dishes, and laundry and other miscellaneous things that need to be done around the house it can be a little frustrating. At the end of the day, while looking at all the things that didn't get done and will have to be done the next day, I just try to remember the sweet feel of her arms around my neck and her little body cuddling into mine. Knowing that I have the ability to comfort her makes all the frustration of the day seem a little less important. 

A moment of happiness in a miserable day. I felt like a rock star mom when I found a way for her to get the yogurt out of the tube.

Abby reading to her little sister to make her happy! 

FINALLY!! Sleeping with a spare pacifier in each hand. Cause you never know how many you might need.

My girls are the sweetest and the best. Even when they are cranky and crabby and drive me up the wall I couldn't be happier that they are mine. They challenge me to be the best me I can be. They challenge me to find the strength and patience inside that I didn't know I had. And I am rewarded by sweet smiles and sleepy little voices telling me they love me as they snuggle in my arms.

What do you do for your kids when they are teething?

Provo Park Hop #1 Bicentennial Park

Every week this summer a group of friends and I will be visiting a new park in Provo to try it out, learn more about our town and find fun new places to play! Hopefully every Friday I will be posting an update about the park we visited the day before.

Yesterday we played at Provo Bicentennial Park. To be honest, the park was almost to Springville and didn't really feel like it was in Provo. Lots of parking spaces right next to the grass which was awesome, no walking through a crowded parking lot with kids in tow.

My friend Melissa brought a bow and arrows and helped each of the kids take a turn. Definitely the highlight of the trip!

The playground was nice and big with plenty of swings, which meant no fighting over swings which was great! Lots of big shade trees for the mammas to camp out under while our kids played.

The duck pond was kind of muddy, we only saw two ducks and they were hiding behind a big fallen tree in the water and weren't interested in the bread Abby brought and was so excited to feed them so that was a bit of a letdown for her. Lilly loves ducks, with a PASSION so I was hoping she would be able to see them but she didn't know what she was missing out on.

Lilly wore her tutu to the park and spent most of her time on the blanket eating snacks or chasing bubbles.

Overall it was a great park with tons of nice lush green grass for the kids to run and play. It was almost too big of a grassy area for little kids as we had a harder time keeping track of them. There is a HUGE hill that they can run up and then roll down.

We loved the playground, shady trees and large grassy area the most. 

What things are a priority for you when choosing which park to take your kids too?

Things we didn't do: 

Wetlands area with a boardwalk to walk on while you check it out.

Sand volleyball area

Disc golf course

DIY Kiddie Pool Cover

If you're like me, when you go through the hassle of getting your kids squirmy bodies into swimsuits, sun-screened and out into the backyard to splash in the kiddie pool, only to discover it's full of bugs, grass clippings and who knows what all it's very frustrating!

Solution: Make a kiddie pool cover to help keep out the unwanted creepy crawlies!

Supplies:

4 yards of fabric

3 yards of 3/4 inch elastic

Sewing machine!

Instructions:

1. Buy 4 yards of fabric

- Cut fabric in half so you have 2 pieces, 2 yards each

2. Sew the right sides of the fabric together (I didn't worry about ironing it open, it's going outside :) )

3. Lay the pool on the wrong side of the fabric and mark about 7 inches from edge of pool with a sharpie

4.Cut the circle out of your fabric

5a. Iron a 1/2 inch seam around edge

5b. Iron down a 1 inch seam around the edge

-Sew down the edge of the 1 inch seam to make a casing, leaving about 2 inches open to thread the elastic through.

-Attach a large safety pin to each end of elastic and secure one end to the opening in the fabric.

-Thread other end of elastic through casing

-Sew ends of elastic together with crisscross stitches

-Sew down 2 inch opening in casing and you're done!!

Try out your kiddie pool cover!

My girls loved that the water was nice and warm from sitting in the sun all day with the cover on without being full of bugs and junk!!

I followed this tutorial by Mama with three chicks when making my pool cover.

Mommy, Mamma, Mom.....

Lilly is now 16 months old

and she has become quite the talker and much better at expressing herself and communicating her needs but some days this is what happens in my house:

In case you are wondering, no, I haven't lost my mind yet but some days I wonder if that is imminent. Thankfully she is super duper cute!

What do your kids do that make you wonder if you are losing your mind?

Mamma Bear Instincts

Yes, I am THAT mom.

Yesterday we ran to the mall to run an errand and I took my kids to the mall playground to release some pent up energy once we were done. The mall has a great treehouse playground with dinosaur bones "half buried" in the ground for the kids to play on. Lilly has figured out that she loves slides and swings and Abby loves anything playground related.

The behavior of some of the kids was appalling but the most appalling thing was the indifference displayed by their parents when they even noticed their little hooligans running around wreaking havoc.

When you as a parent take your kids to the playground, then sit back and let them run rampant it drives me bonkers!! I'm okay with your kids running around crazy as long as they stay away from my kids. Once they start climbing UP the slide that my kid is waiting in line for, cutting in line, pushing or hitting my kids my mamma bear instincts kick in. Yes I will make your kids go to the back of the line, no matter how many times I have to redirect them to the back of the line in a 2 minute time period. I will keep them from going UP the slide while kids are waiting to go DOWN the slide and I won't feel a moments regret from marching your kid over to you when they push or hit my kid. If you won't do it, I will.

You may not care about teaching your kids about respect, obeying playground rules(and life rules in general) or being a decent human being but I DO care about teaching those things to my kids and I will not let your kids ruin my kids trip to the playground and give them bumps and bruises they don't deserve.

Look at these cuties! Who wouldn't unleash the mamma bear inside when necessary?

Twinners

My girls were very patient this morning when I put them in the double jogger and headed out for the first run of the season with them. They laughed and giggled with every bump and turn. It was rather short, because, lets be honest I'm out of shape, recovering from a nasty cold and those girls are heavy! But I went, and I will continue to go! After about a mile and half we arrived back home and the girls were let loose in the backyard to play.

Just ignore the jungle we call a backyard! We are supposed to hear back from Home Depot today about how long it will take to fix the lawnmower! Yay! Before you know it our backyard will be whipped into shape! And no, that's not snow, just a plethora of blossoms from our neighbor's Chinese Elm Tree.

Abby loves pulling Lilly around in the red wagon.

And Lilly loves having a ride!

Such good friends!

So excited to give me the flowers she found!

It's impossible to get both girls to look and smile at the same time!  

I love putting them in cute coordinating clothes. It's hard to tell but Lilly's shirt is also navy and white striped and it has a pink bow.

I am so blessed to have two beautiful girls who remind me to slow down and appreciate the little things in life! 

First Ponytail

First ponytail ever!! 

I cannot get over how cute my little one is. I am having a really hard time lately calling her a toddler and not a baby, where has the time gone?

Birthday girl!!

I can hardly believe that my Lilly, my baby, has turned one year old. She is the sweetest, most stubborn, cutie!

Such a climber, every height must be conquered.

We have a tradition in our family to make the girls a crib sized quilt for their first birthday and this is Lilly's.

Blowing out her candle with a little help from her older sister...

 The birthday theme was loosely based around rainbows.

 Birthday girl is looking a little sleepy and wanting to snuggle with her daddy

The most important people in my life!

Happy birthday to my sweet little Lilly, we are so, so, so happy to have you as part of our family!!

New teeth

About two weeks ago Lilly's first tooth broke through, right in front, on the bottom. We were super excited for her! She has been rather crankier than usual these last few days and then yesterday while we were pushing her in the stroller at the mall, she tipped her head back to look up at me and smiled and there are now two teeth! The second one is small and must have just barely broken through her gums! It's right next to the first one. Our little baby is growing up, I can hardly believe it!

Hello again

Its been far to long since I have devoted any time to this blog. The last few months of my pregnancy with Lilly were excruciating to say the least and I've been crazy busy with a new baby and a toddler since then.

Lillian Kate Twichel was born February 1st 2013. She was a healthy seven pounds eleven ounces and cute as can be. The c-section went pretty smoothly compared to last time

Then 

and 

now

She's a healthy and very happy little 6 month old baby now and we love having her in our family!

If you are wondering why a post now after its been so long I can only point to Scott. Having a blog was his idea from the very beginning (I'm not much of a writer). And yet he never wrote on the blog. He has finally decided to write and started another blog which has motivated me, at least a little bit. So, keep checking here but also keep your eyes on:

http://twicheladventurebook.blogspot.com/

BABY GIRL!

We are expecting a new addition to our family when our baby girl arrives February 6th!