Catch up-- just in time for the Holidays

It always seems to happen-- I get behind on my posts and then have to post a ton at a time. So before I get really behind with all the holidays here goes, I will start from newest to oldest:

Decorating the Christmas Tree:

We decorated our Christmas Tree the first Monday of December. The boys had lots of fun and were so excited. We realized that we have only put it up 4 times in the last 8 years. It really needed to get out of it's box. We anticipate lots of little hands touching the tree so we let each one of the boys pick out a box of non-breakable bulbs for the tree. Each box contained 24 bulbs. I had no intention of putting them all on there but the boys wouldn't stop, so on they all went. It actually doesn't look too bad. It is a tree that was definitely decorated by three small boys. :) 

"Mystery Trouble":

We always talk about Timothy getting into mischief and he always is. One day Andrew came and told me that Timothy was getting into "Mystery trouble." I guess he couldn't remember the word mischief. So now we have a new phrase at our house. Even Timothy calls it "mystery trouble."

The other day he got into really bad "mystery trouble." He was being very quiet, which is never good. So we sent Andrew to check on him. When Andrew came back he wasn't sure what he was doing but told us that he was hiding. We knew that couldn't be good either, so we ran to check on him. Meanwhile, Timothy knew he had been caught so he crawled out of his hiding place behind the computer desk and ran upstairs. So we walked around to find this handprint trail:

He had gotten the jar of Soy Butter (the peanut free version of Peanut Butter that we use) and had eaten and painted things with it. The jar was almost full when he got it-- I had made 2 or 3 sandwiches, and it was almost gone when we found him. It took Derek about an hour to clean the desk, the sewing cabinet, the wall, and the carpet. I got to clean Timothy which was quite the job too. Afterwards all I could do was marvel at how much easier it is to clean up messes with two people rather than one and of course was very grateful it wasn't red food coloring! :)

His face (It was thick enough that Andrew was scraping it off with his fingers and eating it. He informed us that Timothy tasted good):

Who me?!

The desk where he was painting (the picture doesn't really do it justice. Derek had to scrape it off with paper towels before he could even wash it):

The sewing cabinet:

Thanksgiving Dinner:

We enjoyed a nice, quiet Thanksgiving Dinner at home. The boys had fun helping to make all the food. Andrew especially loved covering, or "painting" as he called it, the turkey with butter (okay it was Andrew safe margarine but I always just call it butter). After our "feast," as Brian called it, we enjoyed watching a movie together and just chilling. Then while Derek and I looked at all the adds the boys all crashed on the couch because they were so tired.

The Thanksgiving Table:

Brian decided he LOVES turkey.

The results of eating turkey.

Thanksgiving Tree:

One of the few family traditions that we actually have is to make a Thanksgiving Tree. We usually do it for Family Home Evening at the beginning of November. This year was our fifth tree. 

We start with a picture of a tree with no leaves. Then we are each given some leaves. We take turns saying things that we are thankful for and writing them on the leaves. Then we glue the leaves on the tree. Soon enough our bare tree is filled with leaves showing our blessings. The catch-- each blessing can only be on there once, so if someone has already said it you have to pick something else. We keep our tree up for as long as possible so we can look it and remember all the things that we have to be thankful for.

We asked Timothy what he was thankful for and he thought for a minute. Then all on his own he yelled out, "JESUS!!" Maybe he's not a total rebel. :) It was cute. Then every time it was his turn and we would ask him what he was thankful for he always answered with the same response, "JESUS!!"

Jodi's Birthday!

Yes I had a birthday in November and I got a huge present-- a brand new, silver, 8 passenger 2009 Toyota Sienna Mini-Van. It only had 14 miles on it when we drove it the first time. I love it and am excited to have it but it kind of came as a necessity. We discovered, luckily now and not later, that 5 carseats wouldn't fit in our Dodge Grand Caravan. I wasn't worried, it had 5 seats and we had 5 carseats but it wasn't wide enough for three to go across the backseat. I even went online and found the narrowest booster seats made and ordered them. After they came Derek and I spent about 45 minutes out in the van trying all different ways to get all the carseats to fit with no luck. So in order to bring the twins home from the hospital we had to have a new van. 

I'm sure the salesman has funny stories to tell now. We researched online and found what we wanted for the right price. We called the place to make sure they had it before we drove 30 minutes to see it and they did. So off we went. When we got there they pulled it up for us to see. We pulled out all 5 of our carseats and began putting them in to see if and how they would fit. After several minutes-- they are never quick to put in, we found out they fit-- barely. So we loaded in all the kids and then we took a quick a test drive and came back and said okay we'll take it. I'm sure it's not your everyday sale.

Our new van:

Brian lost his first tooth!

Brian was so excited-- he finally lost his first tooth (back in October-- I know I'm slow, but better late than never). We tried several ways to get it out and finally did it the old fashion way with pliers. They popped it right out. Andrew wants a loose tooth really bad too. He even prays that he will get a loose one soon. But after watching Brian he has informed us that we are not using pliers on his teeth and he doesn't want them to bleed. I guess we'll see how it goes. It's a good thing he's still got a few years to go.

About a month after the first tooth Brian lost his second tooth. It had been loose but we didn't think it was ready to come out yet. We were sitting watching a movie one night and about half way through the movie Brian all of sudden said, "Where's my tooth?!" and sure enough it was gone. We didn't know when or where but it was gone. Earlier that evening the boys had been playing quite roughly in their room. So when we took them to put them to bed I looked around on the floor and happened to find his little tooth on the floor. Yea!! Apparently they had played so rough and wild as to knock out his tooth and he didn't even notice. Crazy boys!

Demonstrating how we pulled it out.

Putting it under his pillow

Showing off his tooth and the pliers we pulled it out with.

His toothless grin!

28 Weeks!

Well it's actually a little past the 28 week mark but I thought I could still post these pictures (they were taken at the right time just not posted on time.)

People always tell me that it looks like I have a basketball under my shirt. So we made these ones just for the visual reference. (Sorry the last ones a bit blurry.)

28 weeks marks the beginning of the third trimester. So now we are in the "final stretch"-- yes there is a pun there. It is definitley going to be some stretching. I can't even imagine at this point how my body/skin is going to stretch enough for these babies to grow anymore. At our ultrasound on Wednesday they figured that Philip weighs 2 lbs. 13 oz. and Kylie weighs 2 lbs. 4 oz. We want them to be at least 5 pounds when they are born so they have to double in size. How they will fit I don't know but somehow it will work. It will be amazing to see how it all works out. My sister had me measure, and already my belly measures the length of 11 squares of toilet paper (don't ask-- it was my sister's idea to use the toilet paper.) When she had her twins at 36 weeks she was 12 squares of toilet paper. So I guess I have one more square to go.

The twins are very active and doing well. Although, as you can see from their weights, Kylie is much smaller then Philip. So they are monitoring her closely. For now they blame it on the fact that she is a girl and she takes after her mother. So we will hope that is the case.

I am doing pretty well too. As I have said before, I am tired all the time but managing. I can't walk around or stand for very long so I hardly leave the house. Derek is getting very good at doing the grocery shopping. He takes my list and coupons and is very good at sticking to the list and using the coupons. I guess I have trained him well. :)

The other day I actually made it to a store for a little shopping and a lady asked me if I was having a Chirstmas baby. When I told her no we were hoping for the end of January her eyes got very big. So I quickly told her it was twins and that's why I was so big. She sighed relief and then congratulated me on the twins. Hmm. . . I guess people don't think I look small anymore. :)

Baby Shower

For all those around and near my home town who may want to attend this event here is the info: (My sister made me post it in case anyone got missed. Please feel free to attend even if you didn't get an official invitation-- consider this one your "official" one.) I hope you can read it, it didn't scan so well. If you need more info then email me and I will get it to you.

Veteran's Day

The Veteran

It is the VETERAN, not the preacher,
who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the VETERAN, not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of press.

It is the VETERAN, not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the VETERAN, not the campus organizer,
that has given us freedom to assemble.

It is the VETERAN, not the lawyer,
who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the VETERAN, not the politician,
who has given us the right to vote.

Anonymous


With today being Veteran's Day we wanted to take a moment and remember some of the special Veterans that have touched our family's life.

Derek: Army, The Global War on Terror-- Iraq & Afghanistan

Martin Davidson (Jodi's Father): Air Force, The Vietman War

Kendall Davidson (Jodi's Grandfather): Army, World War II-- European Front


Mahlon England (Jodi's Grandfather): Marines, World War II-- Pacific Front & The Korean War


Oren Loveland (Derek's Grandfather): Navy, World War II


Henry Talbot (Derek's Great-Grandfather): Army, World War I


And although they are not pictured we would also like to remember all our family members, friends, neighbors, fellow ward members, and home teachers who are Veterans as well. How blessed we have been to rub shoulders with such wonderful people. Thank you to all those who so willing serve our country to preserve the rights and freedoms that our forefathers fought for so long ago.

This summer my Veteran grandfather passed away and we were lucky enough to be able to attend the funeral. Derek was able to wear his dress uniform (thanks to all those who helped in getting it to us). He also got the special priviledge of presenting my grandmother with the flag from the casket. It was special for the whole family and I know my grandfather was proud. I never got time to post the pictures I had so here they are now.

We recently had the opportunity to go out sight-seeing a little bit and got to see one corner of the National Mall. Here are some pictures from that adventure.

Support our Troops!!

Go Army!!

Our Halloween

We had a fun Halloween at our house this year. It's so much more fun when Derek is home to enjoy it with us. :) When I asked the kids what they wanted to be this year they looked at me like I was dumb and Brian said, "Dinosuars!" Kind of like, Duh! Mom, we are dinosaurs everyear don't ya know! I guess I have trained them well since thats what they have been for the last two years. I explained to them that I thought they had grown enough that they wouldn't fit into their costumes anymore. Andrew could wear Brian's and Timothy could wear Andrew's but there wasn't one for Brian. Then Andrew looked at me very matter-of-factly and said, "Just, make another one!" Although I did make the first two I didn't think I would be able to make another one this year. So we had to find Brian something else. He fell in love with an Indiana Jones costume at the store so thus he was Indiana Jones and Andrew and Timothy were of course dinosaurs. Andrew later told us that he was Brian's side-kick. Who knew Indiana Jones had a blue dinosaur side kick? Apparently he does. They are both closely followed by a little green dinosaur shadow. I must have done fairly well when I made those dinosaur costumes. This is the third year they have been used and with the multiple functions each year they have been worn 8 times. That's pretty good for one costume.

The costumes:

Timothy

Andrew

Brian

Trunk-or-Treating:

Our ward had a Halloween party with Trunk-or-Treating.

Carving Pumpkins:

We had our annual Pumpkin Carving Family Home Eveing the Monday before Halloween. This is a big deal to us. Carving pumpkins was Derek and I's first date and we have carved pumkins every year we have been together since then. The boys had a great time. They weren't detered by the gooey "pumpkin guts" at all. They had planned for days of what the faces on their pumpkins would look like and were proud of how they turned out.

Trick-or-Treating:
We must live in a nice neighborhood-- the boys got full size candy bars at two houses and two houses were giving out refreshments to the parents. After a few houses we had to tell Brian to just let people put whatever candy they had in Andrew's bucket. He kept stopping everyone and tellng them that his brother couldn't have peanuts or milk. He is such a good brother to look out for Andrew like that but it was getting the people all confused and Andrew was ending up without any candy. I assured him we would just take care of it when we got home.
The weather was beautiful. I was worried about it being chilly so we wore jackets and we got too warm. I do love non-Idaho trick-or-treating. :)