Two Little Ducklings

I got the cutest little robes from a co-worker at the shower that my office had for me. I have never thought to use them but I remembered after the boys got our of their bath yesterday and of course I had to take a million pictures.

They are pretty much the cutest little ducklings I have ever seen.

Picture-A-Day

I am a picture taker. Always have been, but now that I have two extremely cute models to take pictures of it has become a bit of an obsession. I used to scrapbook and I loved it but there is just no way I am going to be able to find the time to scrapbook the way I want now so I decided that I needed to find an alternative for at least a little while.  I decided that I wanted to do Becky Higgins Project Life, it is simple, fast and it incorporates pictures, writing and pretty paper! I bought a kit so I can do a paper version since I so love the papercrafting end of scrapbooking and I can still fulfill that crafting need I get once and awhile. But I am also doing the digital Project Life on Shutterfly. Seriously AWESOME.  I am doing this so that I can print out two book at the end of the year one for each of the boys.  Matts mom made individual photo albums for each of her children packed with pictures, programs and all sorts of memorabilia that she gave to them each when they got married. We love going through those books and laughing and I want to have something similar for my boys. The nice thing about the Shutterfly version is that it is already all laid out and all I have to do is put in my 7 pictures for the week and write a little blip about each one. So far two weeks in I am loving it and think that anyone looking for a way to document their lives this is a great way. I wish I would have done this every year we have been married.  I thought I would share our  weekly pictures here as well just for fun and for our family that is not close.

4 Months

My babies are 4 months old. Where does the time go. They are at such a fun stage. Smiling all the time, cooing, sleeping through the night (!!!!)  just starting to giggle and they recognize each other. I love when they just stare at each other, like they are having some silent conversation. They have a doctor’s appointment next week so we get to see how they are measuring then.

Porter, I know is the taller of the two and in the past has always outweighed Byron by almost exactly a pound but I think that Byron is going to give him a run for his money this time around. When Porter was teething he was only drinking half what Byron was drinking so Byron had a chance to pack on the pounds and I think he did.

Of course they are probably still a little small for their age because they started out small. I have a feeling though that with Matt as their father they are not going to be small boys. Either way I happen to think they are two of the cutest, fattest babies around.

December

We had a wonderful December and the boys go to experience a whole bunch of firsts.

First playdate. Not that they really played, but they this is little Lainey who was born just three days after the boys. She looks a little overwhelmed and it seemed that Byron just wanted to cuddle with her.

First visit to Temple Square. We had family Christmas Party in Bountiful. Matt had to work so I went with my parents and we took the boys to see the lights. It was pretty cold but I loved watching their eyes get big as they looked at all the lights. They love the lights on the Christmas tree and this was like 10,000 times that.

First Christmas Eve Jammies! It is a tradition in our family to get new Christmas Eve jammies. Thanks to my Aunt Debbie the boys had these cute red and white striped jammies to wear Christmas morning.  They also got to meet a whole bunch of second cousins wearing the same jammies and take some very adorable pictures.

 

Of course it was their first Christmas and they were spoiled rotten by everyone.

They got their first Teddy Bears! I have a Grandpa who gives all the grandkids Teddy Bears when they are born and these are his first great-grandkids so he saved the Teddy Bears for Christmas. They were perfect and I love that the bears are bigger than the boys, for now at least.

Porter got to experience a first all his own which is a rarity with these two. They tend to share everything. He got his first teeth. One day I noticed he had a tooth and the next day he had another. Byron is still showing no signs of teething so I think Porter gets to keep this first to himself for a while.

Lastly we got to experience our first Christmas as a family of four.  This was Matt and Is sixth Christmas together and never have I been more excited for Christmas in my adult life as I was for this Christmas. I look back on last Christmas and it was a little depressing. I desperately wanted to buying presents for a child, I had been feeling that way for a few Christmases but for some reason that Christmas it was just a little harder.  Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that by this Christmas I would have two precious blessing to spoil. I know that my boys will not remember a thing about this Christmas but the fact that they were here and every night of this December I got to kiss their little cheeks and tell them that I love them is the best gift I could ever ask for.

Bumbo Buddies

We love bumbos in our house. It is one more way to contain these babies and they usually really love them. I  put them in their bumbos to watch me make dinner and they will not take their eyes off of me the entire time. Or I have them face each other and they just stare at each other and babble away. This however was not a good bumbo night.

Hand-Holding Babies

When we first brought the boys home from the hospital I commented to my Mom that every time I dressed them up in a cute outfit I wanted to take their pictures. She told me that that would wear off pretty soon, I guess I just wasn’t as cute a baby as they are because I still want to take their pictures every time I have them all dressed up and every time they are just in their diapers and pretty much just all the time. Sometimes though finding the camera is not convenient or they are grouchy or we are in a hurry so I forgo the photo shoot but the one thing I CANNOT resist taking pictures of every single time is when they hold hands or snuggle with each other. I am sure this is something they are really going to appreciate when they are 16 and the house is littered with pictures of their chubby little baby bodies cuddled up next to each other but it is possibly the cutest thing ever.

Porter (the one with hair) definitely is the more cuddly of the two, he is always trying to grab Byron’s hand if it is in reach and if he successfully gets it Byron usually yanks it away and screeches at him. Occasionally though I will catch them just babbling to each other with their arms linked or hands held totally content. It is the moments like these that make the surround sound of two babies crying totally worth it.

 

Thanksgiving

I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Starting with my little family. Everyday I am still in awe that I have these little miracle boys and I hope I don’t take a single day for granted.

Smiling Boys

The boys seem to smile all the time now of course as soon as I get the camera out it all stops. It is especially hard to get a picture with both of them smiling at the same time. But after many non-smiling pictures we had some success!

Applesauce

My aunt has some apple trees that were just loaded with beautiful apples that were going to go unused this year. So Matt went and picked a lot, I don’t even know how many but he filled several rubbermaid totes and we got to work making applesauce.

Making applesauce is quite the process and everything takes a little bit longer when you have to take baby break every so often but after a few hours we had a good supply of yummy applesauce.

Byron supervised and dreamt about the day when he finally gets to ingest more than just milk.

 

The Great-Greats

The boys have two living Great-Great Grandmas! So we had to get some pictures with each of them.

This is my Grammy my Great Grandma King. She now lives in American Fork with one of her daughters but when I was growing up she lived in North Logan. We used to always go over to her house and watch the fireworks because her back yard had the best view of the stadium. I also remember homemade peach ice cream and she had a toy drawer in her kitchen where we would play.

This is my great grandma Jenkins. When I was growing up she lived in Star Valley Wyoming. Her and my Grandpa were Dairy Farmers. I remember their house in Star Valley they had a hula dancer that we loved to have Grandma turn on so we could watch dance. On this side of the family we have five generations that are still living so we took a five-generation photo!

I was lucky to have these great-grandparents in my life and I am glad that my grandmas had the chance to meet my little guys.