Feeding the Giraffes

I thought I was done, but I keep remembering things I forgot about and finding cute pictures and videos. Here's one cute video my Mom took while we were at the zoo. The giraffe licks Meredith's hand and then the little hand that actually feeds the giraffe something is Emily's. And then she jumped up and down after the giraffe ate out of her hand.

The Twyman Family Adventures (Part 1)

I'm hoping that our trip back south to our home will be uneventful so there will be no need for part 2, but with several trips to and from Utah under our belt there is hardly a trip that's gone by that hasn't been...interesting.

This time around we thought we might travel at night while the girls were sleeping. Well, it started snowing and we decided against it. We were going to start early the next morning instead. So, we headed out the direction that would be the fastest only to find that the road wasn't plowed, so we took the long way around. After going through lots of scary road all of the sudden we ran out of windshield wiper fluid. We stopped to get gas, have Emily make a pit stop, and to buy some of that most precious fluid (any fluid in a car is precious if you are running low). We found out, our windshield sprayer wasn't working. We decided to get as far as we could and ended up calling up my Mom to find someone in Moab to fix our sprayer for us. When we got to Moab the guy lifted up the hood and the sprayer just worked. So we went on our merry way and it stopped working again. We stopped several times for the dumb sprayer and are grateful that we made it safely to our destination. That is no small miracle.

Zoo with My Family

My family came to visit us for a day and while they were here we went to the Zoo. Emily couldn't wait until Uncle Matthew got there. We sort of missed getting a picture of Emily feeding the Giraffes. I'm going to have to keep going to the zoo until I finally get a picture of the girls feeding the giraffe.

Just for the record, I'm not afraid of snakes. For the most part. In New Mexico they have a Rattlesnake pit and when you walk near the pit all of the snakes start rattling. That would give anyone goosebumps. And just in case you have any nerve left after that you put a balloon on the end of a fishing pole and you stick the balloon into the pit and the snakes pop it. I'm told that they have a little program where a man gets into a sleeping bag with several rattlesnakes in there. Just an interesting thing. This snake was not poisonous and Emily enjoys petting the snakes that we see at the zoo.

Here's just a cute picture in front of a giraffe that's really stretching to get that one leaf, if he can.

Ring-a-round the Rosies

And a cute pose in front of the Elephant.

Happy 4th Anniversary

Nathan and I celebrated our 4th anniversary on the 18th. We celebrated it with our girls. (And we celebrated while packing our bags to leave the next day.) We went out walking so that Emily could ride her bike (I usually take her while Nathan is at work and Meredith is sleeping. We just go in front of our home and take the baby monitor so we can hear Meredith if she wakes up. It was fun to have him and Meredith join us.)

We've had 4 wonderful years together and 2 children that have brought us so much joy. We only have the rest of eternity to spend together and that can't possibly be long enough.

Happy Belated Birthday

I wanted to make a birthday cake for my brother's birthday, but it turned out that we weren't there that day. So he took a raincheck and I made it a few days after. Jessica helped me to decorate the cake.

We made the car out of a circle cake and Nathan even helped me with the template. He's the best husband.

Emily helped Matthew blow out the candles. Someone helped her on her birthday, so I guess she figured she was supposed to help Uncle Matthew.

"Are you OK"

My girls are so cute. If I get in a hurry or I'm upset Emily will ask me, "Are you ok." To which I answer, "yes, I'm ok, are you ok?" "Yes," she says.

Two nights ago Meredith woke up because Emily was coughing and after a little while of being in bed with me Emily coughed again and Meredith went over to her and said, "What's wrong? Are you ok?" What sweet little girls I have. I really enjoy hearing them talk, although I'd prefer hearing them talk at 7am instead of 5am, but 3-year-olds and 1-year-olds don't really care, now do they.

Pre-Christmas Present Opening

This year we will be at Nathan's parents' house for Christmas, but I wanted my parents to be able to see the girls open the presents my parents were giving them and I wanted to see Matthew (my brother) open his present so perhaps I wouldn't be so incredibly homesick for Christmas (for those that know me, I get really homesick. Quite literally, I get sick.) So, it ended up being a Pre-Christmas Present Opening Party where we opened the presents that were either to me, Nathan, Emily or Meredith or from us for those presents that were to or from my family.

This picture is of meredith hugging her dolly (that she absolutely LOVES). We couldn't get that dolly out of the box fast enough for her. And Matthew is showing us his cool present from me.

Funny story for this picture. I was talking to my Mom in her room and had Matthew's present with me because I was supposed to wrap it. But I was in a chair and very comfortable so I just put it next to me kind of hidden and forgot it was there. After forgetting about the present being there Matthew came in and sat on the bed. He saw it and says, "cool". I was mentally shooting myself because I just KNEW I should have wrapped it before when I had a chance. I gave him a hard time and said I'd have to return it to get a present that would be a surprise. Poor boy, he started crying because he really wanted the toy. I had to tell him I wouldn't return it and he helped me wrap it. I did get little additions to the watch that were a surprise though.

Nathan got some nice basketball shoes. Meredith helped him try them on.

This was one of my gifts from my parents. My Mom bought me a knew Christmas decoration which I love. It was bells that were the 12 Days of Christmas. I collect bells, so it makes it even better. Of course, I don't just collect any bell. It has to be something special. And these bells are definitely special to me. I also got some knives, which I haven't got to try out yet, but they look really nice and I can't wait to go home and use my gifts.

Here is Emily undressing her dolly. She likes to undress her dolls so that I am ALWAYS looking for clothes to put back on the dolls.

New Calling

So they called me to be the Ward Choir Director. I think they are trying to tell me something, like how about the fact that I don't go to choir practice at all, and yet I am musical. That will be new to have a calling not behind the piano and I'll actually have to put forth some effort, I can't just show up and play (Thanks to a wonderful Mom who made sure I had piano lessons even while kicking and screaming, ok not quite that bad, and later when I wanted them she paid for them, and now I can just sightread the music so I don't have to practice). Did I mention that I really enjoy playing the piano in primary and don't want to leave, especially because Emily is going to be in Primary in January and it would be fun to be in there with her. Not to mention I think I'll be less nervous about her being in primary (the poor new sunbeams don't understand why the cruel parents and adults won't let them go play in Nursery and then make them sit still some more.) This morning I started thinking about it so I talked to Emily. "You're going to be a big girl soon. You won't go to nursery anymore but you'll go to Primary with the Big Kids!" Emily, "Wow". There's a couple of changes right there that will happen for 2009. And as Emily says, "Wow" :)

To a Special Daddy

I'm still here, it's just gotten really busy around here so the time to blog has dropped to an all time low.

So, I figure there has to be a correlation between exercising and having a clean home and being happy. Exercising helps being happy and having a clean home. Being happy helps you want to exercise and have a clean home. Having a clean home helps you want to take the time to exercise and definitely adds to my happiness :) I usually go walking with a group of friends every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning. Since starting this I have found it easier to keep my home clean and it has been a much happier home. Of course, between being gone for Thanksgiving and now the girls are sick I haven't been walking for over a week and I'm feeling pretty grumpy and my house isn't as clean as I want it to be, and I really don't feel like folding my laundry. If they were just sick I would take them and just keep them away from the other little kids, but Emily has had a cough (they are all strapped into strollers the whole time so they don't get near them anyways unless I let them afterwards). I think she's getting better though, so hopefully by tomorrow I can go :).

I was reading a post earlier and it was about a father tucking in his little girl and singing to her. My favorite part of the day is when Nathan comes home. I love it best when I'm finishing up dinner while he plays with them. I love hearing the squealing and excitement from the girls and I think it is so peaceful to cook while everyone is happy. Another thing I love is when Nathan tucks the girls in bed and sings them to sleep. I love tucking in my girls and singing to them and sometimes Nathan and I both do it together and sing together to them (Emily will even chime in now and then) and I love it, but I also love seeing Nathan take care of our girls and love them and sing to them and I'll just hang outside the door to watch because I love it. Nathan has also taken it upon himself to check on our girls every night and put on an extra blanket (the nights here are fairly cold and we still haven't turned on our heater because we haven't really had to). To Nathan - I love you. Thanks for being such a great Daddy.

We're eager as a family to have a Christmas break. Nathan has had to put in some late nights with all of the finals and projects that are coming due. I'm hoping he just skips out on the cold the rest of the family has.

Doctor, Doctor, Who's Got a Doctor?

Today was our THIRD time to go to the doctor's office in the past two weeks. Meredith was really struggling with eczema and the hydrocortisone was not helping. She also she had a diaper rash for a long time so I took her in. The diaper rash turned out to be a yeast infection. After a week of doing what the doctor told us with two different perscriptions her eczema actually got worse and the yeast infection still wasn't gone, so we went back. We came out armed with a 2 stronger perscriptions and the doctor had me use hydrocortizone for her cheeks and then Vaseline on top of all of that. When we left for Thanksgiving I took a small bag with all of her creams (3 creams, vaseline, lotion). I had to do all of this twice a day, and the diaper stuff 4 times a day. I feel like for the last week all I've done is put creams on my baby. She's tired of it, she thought it was interesting to have Mom smear cream on her twice every day for a while and then she started fighting me. Hearing me do bedtime should be positively hilarious. I have to make all sorts of silly sounds to make her laugh and think we're just playing a game. Whew! And then to get out in the mornings...I have to add 5-10 minutes onto the typical routine, only 5 minutes if she's cooperative. We went again today and came out armed this time with an oral perscription on top of every thing else of course. My poor baby. I hope this is over soon.

25 Days of Christmas Begins!

Tonight the girls and I did the first day of the 25 days of Christmas. We pretended we were Wise Men on our Camels (using of course the wise men and camels from our nativity scenes) looking for the Baby Jesus. Then we made a 25 days of Christmas chain. I figure that we could switch off and one child tear off the paper chain and the other do the advent calendar. We're just sad that our Daddy couldn't join us today, but he gets to go to his sister's wedding We're excited that he gets to go and we're excited for his sister.

I have at least the first 11 days of Christmas done, and now I'm just finishing up the rest of them. I definitely see this as an evolving thing. Next years' will probably be different. I posted it on my FHE Blog