Lake Powell --(a month late in posting)

It rained really hard one day, and the waterfalls off the cliffs were beautiful. I loved the rainbow on this one. We are so grateful that my parents let us borrow their boat this trip. Thanks Mom and Dad! We love you guys.

Kylee is getting more adventureous. She loved going down the houseboat slide, waterskiing, knee boarding, and tubing this year. It was hard to get her out of the water.

It was a lot of work getting the twins in the water. By the time they had on all their sunscreen, swim diapers, swim shirts, life jackets, hats, etc. I was ready for their nap (and one for me too!)

We sure had a different experience at Lake Powell this year. With twins, everything is a new adventure. Braydon got 3 new teeth and pink eye(s) while we were there, and Brooklyn was getting over ear infections. Overall, they did pretty well, considering. We love going and spending a week with our family, but is sure does go by too fast every year.

4th of July at my parent's cabin.

The twins are so photogenic! 6 months old and growing fast.

Growing so fast

I think this was Mother's day weekend. I had a great mother's day!

Love this picture of Brooklyn smiling. She is so happy these days. It's so awesome! It really makes my day. It's hard to get them both to smile for the camera at the same time.

Kylee does pretty good on her bike now. We went for a long bike ride, and she kept up even with her asthma!

We took the twins out for their first bike ride. Braydon loved it, but Brooklyn cried every time we went over a bump in the road. She doesn't like loud noises either. Wes makes her cry all the time with his loud voice.

Happy Birthday to Wesley! The big 34
Braydon smiles a lot these days

This was taken on St. Patrick's Day. Notice the green

Kylee loves to rock the twins as she sings to them. It's amazing how they calm down so fast when she does this. They love their big sis!

Hiking with the Poulsens

I forgot to bring a hat for Brooklyn, so yes, she is wearing pants on her head--with a headband around it. It looked cute anyway.

Don't Keri and Dusty make a cute couple!


Kylee loves to pose for pictures. Can you tell?

We always have fun when Keri and Dusty come to visit. We went hiking above the "Dixie" in St.George. It was the twins first hike!

The hair and the toe

Conference weekend, Braydon had a potentially dangerous condition: He had one of my hairs wrapped around his little toe. Luckily Kylee noticed it, so we could get it removed. The hair had wound itself so tightly around his toe, that it was creating a turniquet around his toe. It was so swollen, that we couldn't get to the hair--it was too deep. We had to take Braydon to the ER. They said that they had seen this before, and babies had even lost toes, fingers, and other appendiges before. We were lucky that we noticed it in time. It was so weird! The pictures were taken about an hour after the doctor had removed the hair, and some of the swelling had gone down. Braydon's toe is back to normal now. This is just a work of caution to all you moms out there: check your kids toes for hairs--they can be dangerous!

My babies are growing so fast

I've been back to work for over 3 weeks now. It's not easy, but I'm managing. I take the twins with me to the daycare at my work. That means I get up at 4:15 or 4:30 am so I can leave my house by 5:30. I don't get much sleep these days.

Easter was fun. We had Wes' parents down to see us. They are so awesome. They really spoil us, especially Kylee. We love our family.

Brooklyn and Braydon are growing. Braydon is wearing 3-6 month clothes, and Brooklyn is starting too as well. Braydon is still a big eater. I think Brooklyn has acid reflux. They both are really good babies. The daycare workers always tell me how good they are (except they are always holding them, so no wonder they are good. ) I think they are spoiling my babies. It's harder to put them down these days because they are used to being held, or put in a bouncer.

Kylee is doing great in school, and she takes singing lessons once a week too. She goes to the after school program on days that I work. She loves all the fun games they play, and I love that they work on homework there!

Wes is doing well at work. He is such a good help to me. I love how hard he works. I know my expectations are high, and he really tries to make me happy! I love you honey.

Babies Blessings

We made a very quick trip to Sandy this weekend for the twins baby blessings. Everything went great, and we loved seeing so many family and friends. I wished we could have stayed longer, but Wes had to get back to work. We are very thankful for his job so we are not complaining!

Lots of photos

During this photo shoot, Braydon was screaming and crying. If we have more pictures of Brooklyn, it's because she was cooporating. Babies just don't know how to pose yet. They also were so interested in what was going on, that they wouldn't go to sleep. They love bright lights, so I think all the flash photography just excited them.

Braydon's smile

It's so hard to capture a picture of them smiling. Here is a little smile from Braydon.

Photos I Love

My friend from work took these pictures as a gift to me. Even though she's just beginning in photography, I think she did a great job. She spent many hours at my house trying to pose the babies, and wait for them to be calm. She is way more patient than I am. I'll post some of my favorites. There were so many good ones, it's so hard to pick just a few.

Thanks Miranda!

I can never get enough pictures of my babies!!!!

Brooklyn

I think I have more pictures of Braydon posted, so I need to post another of Brooklyn. She is such a sweetheart. She is just barely big enough to fit in the Bumbo. She likes to be sitting up, and she loves it when I sing to her. Today, while I was giving her brother his bath, she started crying for some attention. When I started singing to her, she calmed right down and waited for me to finish Braydon's bath. People ask me if it's harder having twins, and this is an example of a time when yes, it is harder. One twin has to be patient while the other twin gets the attention. For the most part, I try to keep them on a good schedule doing everything together. With twins, it just takes longer to accomplish that schedule.

Sick Babies

So we are still fighting sickness at our house. I'm hoping the twins are almost done with this cold. It's exhausting waking-up even more than normal, and suctioning secretions. I can tell that the twins are even extra tired. It's hard to see my cute little babes sick. They also have really goopy eyes. Poor babies! I decided to document how bad their eyes are. In this picture above, Braydon's eye boogers are less than an hour old (I had just cleaned his eyes 45 minutes prior). Also, notice the how red Braydon's eyelids are from cleaning them. Sorry buddy.

Happy Valentines

I know this post is a little late, but we had a great Valentine's day at our house. Keri and Dusty and their boys were here for a baseball tournament, and they babysat our kiddos so Wes and I could go on a date. we went to see Avatar. We loved the movie, but I loved the time out even better. I love my babies, but I sometimes feel a little attached--literally. Wes bought Kylee and I roses this year. Kylee and I took these pictures to remember how pretty the flowers were.

THanks honey!

I have the best friends in the world!

Sunday night I got a knock on my door, and to my utter surprise, it was three of my best friends! They came all the way from Salt Lake to see me--and show me their love and support. They made me dinner, cleaned my house, babysat the kiddos, and drove us to the hospital. It was really lucky that the girls were here. Braydon and Brooklyn unfortunately got sick, and needed to be looked-at by their doctor. I took them to the hospital for their pediatrician to asess them. The doctor said that Brooklyn looked ok, but if Braydon's fever got any higher, I needed to bring him back to the hospital for some more tests, given that he is still so young (only 50 days old). Well, 3 hours later his fever was up to 101.5 degrees, so I had to bring him back to the hospital. They admitted him, and ran some tests. It was sad to see him poked 5 times in an attempt to start an IV. It was hard to see them put a catheter in him, and a tube down his nose to suck out his congestion. Although, this is where I work, and this is what I do for a living. Weird how much harder it is to see when it is your own child. When the nurse had trouble starting his iv, she asked me if I wanted to start it. I said, "no way!"

Luckily, his blood tests looked ok, and after he was suctioned, he fed much better. His x-ray showed bronchiolitis, but his sputum test was negative for RSV (and 5 other common viruses that cause bronchiolitis that they test for). The doctor said that I could take him home. He still is very sick, and I've had to suction him at least every three hours. The doctor rented me a suction machine, so I could do nasalpharyngeal suctioning on both babies if needed. I've only had to deep suction Brooklyn once, but I use a bulb syringe on her a lot. Her eyes are really goopy though. Oh what fun having sick babies (and I'm sick too--did I forget to mention that?)

So, I am so thankful that my friends were here to help take care of Kylee and her friend while I went to the hospital with the twins. Thanks girls!