The Loveland Family

We're Moving!!

2011-07-23T23:15:00.004-04:00

According to Andrew, "We are going to be our own landlord!"

We get the keys on Friday. We are so excited. I am still in awe and can't believe that it's real. We weren't even really looking and then a house on our street came up for sale. We took one look and fell in love. It all happened so fast-- it was only on the market for 5 days. Although we hadn't been actively looking to buy a house the Lord had been preparing us so when it all of a sudden came up it was easier for us to say, "This is the place-- we'll take it!" The kids are way excited to have a basement-- according to them they just "love" basements. Derek is excited to have a home of his own and likes the idea of being able to do whatever he wants to it. He can't wait to stock up on home improvement books. Me-- I am excited to have some room. We will be moving up from 1800 square feet to 3200. I can't wait!! Now to just make it through the move. Why do we always move when I am pregnant?!

It's FINALLY done!!!

2011-07-13T23:23:00.006-04:00

It's official-- Derek's thesis is FINALLY done, handed in, and signed off on!! It has taken three years to get to this point. It has been a LONG process with many sacrifices and numerous sleepless nights. We've had to jump through many hoops to get here-- but, we're here!! We are so excited! Now we can spend our weekends together as a family again. :) Official graduation is on July 29th. Now Derek will have is master's degree in Strategic Intelligence. Woo-hoo!!!

Derek with his finished thesis:

Being silly!!

This is the acknowledgement Derek wrote to go with his thesis. It melts my heart every time I read it. :)

"To my wife Jodi and our children; Brian, Andrew, Timothy, Kylie, and Philip who had to

forego many family activities because daddy had to “work on his thesis,” thank you for your love and patience. Additional thanks to friends and co-workers who continued to support and

encourage me throughout the process. Lastly, a most humble and heartfelt thank you to Dusty

Stewart and John Davidson, two of the greatest in-laws I am blessed to call family."

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us/Derek all this time. We know it truly helped!! We feel very blessed to have been given the opportunity to make it to this point and to achieve this accomplishment. :)

Blogging from phone

2011-07-04T08:27:00.001-04:00

Figured I ought to try out this blogger app since I've had it on my phone for months. Currently I'm on the Metro heading in to work to finish my thesis on the 4th of July. Hopefully this truly is my independence day from this paper.

Have to try and add a picture too.

Why I've Been Away

2011-05-24T16:18:00.006-04:00

I know, I haven't posted anything in a long time. It's not like I don't have anything to post, in fact at this point, I have too much to ever catch up. There is never a shortage of excitement at our house. :) Anyway, I thought I would at least let you know what has been keeping me so busy. My sewing machine and I have been spending A LOT of time together lately. Here are a few photos of what I have been working on.

My sister got married this month and we wanted all 15 of the grandchildren to match. So this is where most of my time was spent-- making these 7 dresses and 8 bowties:

Here they are on the grandkids:

All 7 of the little girls:

All 8 of the little boys (they aren't as photogenic as the girls):

We did it not only because it was cute but so my parents could have a picture like this:

In between making all the stuff for the wedding I also found time to make Kylie this Easter dress (Philip wanted in the picture too):

I also made Kylie and me these matching skirts to wear on Mother's Day:

I made two more skirts for the wedding like the ones above and a special white dress for my niece who got baptized the week before my sister's wedding. I also made Timothy new curtains for his bedroom and new curtains for my living room that have jabots and festoons. And lastly, I am half way done with a blessing dress for my sister's new little baby girl. It would be all the way done but Kylie decided she wanted to help. Too bad it wasn't really so helpful. After I had the lace sewed on around the bottom she snipped slits all over in it all across the front. Someone ran off with my seam ripper at some point so that project is on hold for a moment. Did I mention that she cut her bangs while she was helping me too. As I said, there is never a shortage of excitement at our house. :) Oh, and I wanted to add that I sewed all these things in just over two months time. Like I said, my sewing machine and I are really close right now.

Happiness

2011-03-25T18:14:00.011-04:00

Happiness means different things to different people at different times. Today we find our definition of happiness in Psalms 127: 3-5, which says:

"Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.

Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. . ."

We are happy to add to our already full quiver!!

Expected arrival for this little arrow is October 19, 2011.

Medicine Anyone?

2011-03-07T12:25:00.004-05:00

How many bottles of Amoxicillin do you have in your refrigerator?

We have 6!

Plus all this in the cupboard too:

As you can guess it's not been a fun two weeks at our house. In 10 days time we have had 8 visits to the doctor and 7 to the pharmacy. Most of the trips to the pharmacy took an hour or more. Gotta love military pharmacies! :)
Derek is the only one in the family who hasn't been sick but since he escorted most of us to the doctor he has actually "seen" more doctors than any of us. (Ha! Ha!) Anyway, Andrew, Brian, and I all had strep throat, Kylie had double ear infections, Philip had bronchitis, and Timothy had an upper respiratory infection. Andrew also had an allergic reaction to his Amoxicillin and was covered in a rash from head to toe. Poor kid-- just another thing to add to his already long list of allergens. So, we have had lots of fevers, sore throats, coughing and some itching at our house. We have gone through two whole bottles of children's Tylenol. Since we all started our medicine everyone is on the mend and appears to be getting better. Now we are just hoping that Derek won't ever have his turn. Here's to hoping!!

Timothy Strikes Again!!

2011-02-08T13:20:00.005-05:00

Timothy and the babies were entertaining themselves and all was quiet (well, as quiet as it gets at our house) so I stepped out of the room for a moment to check my email. After a few minutes Kylie came in and wanted to crawl up on my lap. When I looked down at her this is what I saw:

Yep, Timothy snipped off her piggy-tails with the scissors. They were a couple inches long and now they are just stubs about 1/2 inch long. When I questioned Timothy about why he did it, he looked up me all sad and said, "I want to be good, and I'm trying to be good, but my body just does it." Ah. . . the natural man we all have to learn to fight. I also discovered later that he had also cut a hole right in the middle of the front of his Seahawks jersey and in his pants. Man he got a lot done in a few minutes! There is a reason I usually never let him use scissors. Why I did this day I'm still not sure.

To add to the day, he later used a toilet plunger to pull the door off the cabinet that Kylie is standing in front of in the pictures.

Pinewood Derby

2011-01-18T13:57:00.006-05:00

We had Brian's first Pinewood Derby last week. He had lots of fun making his car and even more fun racing it. We must have done pretty well for our first try since he won 3rd place in his den. His den had the most entries too, there were 12-15 other cars. Andrew and Timothy can hardly wait until it's their turn. They already have their cars all designed. :)

There was a Saturday activity where the boys and their dads met at one of the leader's houses to cut out their cars. Since the only tools we own are screwdrivers, hammers, and a drill, that was great for us. Derek is now thinking he needs a band saw-- whatever!! I don't have pictures of them cutting out the car (although I wish I did since I would love to have watched them do it since I think I have used our only power tool more than Derek-- he!he!) but I have pictures of the rest of the process.

Sanding the car:

Andrew wanted to help so bad

Drilling holes in the bottom to add weight:

Painting (of course he painted it blue, his favorite):

Adding the racing stripe:

The final product:

Checking in at the race (this is the most organized Pinewood Derby I have ever been to. It was all done on computer):

Setting his car (notice the guy with the lap top-- he was managing all the races):

Set to go:

Racing:

Winning (don't get confused-- it's a different race than the above pictures, I couldn't be at the top and the bottom of the track at the same time and the car obviously made it to the end of the track before I did):

Receiving his trophy and ribbon:

3rd place in the Wolf Den:

(Now that's it's all over and done with I am way glad that clear back when I was in Young Women's we had a combined activity with the Young Men that was a pinewood derby. And I'm glad that although he helped me, my brother insisted that I do all the work on my own car. At the time, I hated sanding that silly thing but all these years later it totally paid off as now I know how to make one. Who knew that all these years later I would have a whole house full of boys with at least 12 pinewood derbys to look forward to. :) Thanks Bro!!)

Chocolate Dipping & Christmas

2011-01-04T21:27:00.000-05:00

I had hoped to get this posted before the end of the year but alas it didn't get done. But at least it's before Valentine's Day. I am doing a little better. :)

Chocolate Dipping:
Here are some photos from our traditional chocolate dipping event. (In Derek's family spanning back for 5 generations from our children the family gathers together, usually the Saturday after Thanksgiving, for Chocolate dipping. They dip and make "real" chocolates to enjoy throughout the holiday season. We have adapted it for our family and instead of making "real" chocolates we "dip" in a chocolate fountain.)

Dipping:

Eating:

Showing off their chocolatey faces:

Christmas Eve:

The last couple of years we have tried to do something special on Christmas Eve day. This year we went to Mt Vernon. We have been there several times this year already but Christmas is the only time of year that they have the third floor of the mansion open for tours. So we went to see the third floor. We also got to see a camel which is always brought to the estate for Christmas. Apparently Washington would bring one for entertainment even in his day. The turkey that was pardonded by President Obama on Thanksgiving was also there. We had an enjoyable time.

The camel:

Looking at the camel:

The camel saying, "Hi" to the babies:

Standing by a tree that was planted by George Washington:

Christmas Morning:

We kept telling the kids we weren't sure if Santa was going to stop at our house this year and if he did he would probably just leave coal. But thank goodness Santa is very forgiving and he made a stop anyway. :)

Opening Presents:

Kylie loved her baby doll so much she had to have it out of the box immediately.

She wrapped it in her new pillowcase

Philip was most entertained by the box of Clementine oranges

The kids with their loot:

Christmas Evening:

We took some time in the evening on Christmas Day to go see the lights at the Washington D.C. temple. As always-- they were beautiful. It made for a nice end to the day. (We have a picture of our family in this same spot every year since we moved here.)

We hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas. We sure did!!

Santa

2010-12-22T23:33:00.004-05:00

We got to see Santa at our church Christmas party last Friday.

Santa also visited our neighborhood the next day. He came on a fire truck.

The fire truck stopped and he got out and talked to all the kids. Andrew was excited to talk to him because he had changed his mind on what he wanted and needed to put in a "new request."
Timothy was shy this time and wouldn't talk to him.
So he whispered in his Dad's ear and then he relayed the message for him.
The babies just tried to ignore him.
Kylie even hid her face.
Brian didn't think he needed to talk to him again since he had already done it. But I did talk him into standing by him so I could get a picture.

Holiday Trees

2010-12-15T13:12:00.010-05:00

Before we get to Christmas I have to show off our Thanksgiving Tree. We make one every year. Just to remind you how it works we take turns saying something we are thankful for. We then write it on a leaf and add it to our tree. The catch is that something can only be said once so each leaf says something different.

And now on to the Christmas tree. We put it up on one day and then decorated it the next day. The kids had lots of fun. We let them do almost all the ornaments so our tree pretty much looks like it was decorated by a bunch of kids, but it's beautiful. :) Good thing I'm not a person who needs a perfect looking tree. The decorations on the bottom 2-3 feet only lasted about 24 hours and the babies had them all off. So now it's only even decorated on the top half. But it makes us smile every time we look at it.

Merry Christmas!!

Halloween

2010-11-23T22:15:00.032-05:00

And now, the post you've all been waiting for: Halloween!

The Costumes:

This is the first time since I made our dinosaur costumes like 4 years ago that no one wore one of them. I guess after 4 years of use it was time for them to have a break. Anyway, the theme in our family this year was: "The Wizard of Oz." (Not the boys first choice of course but I talked them into it after watching the movie.) I wanted the kids to have cute costumes but I didn't want to put a lot of money into them or spend too much time on them. So I did what I could with stuff I had on hand and without any patterns. I think they turned out pretty good considering that. I made them all except for Kylie's.

"The Wizard of Oz."

Brian as "The Tin Man" or "The Tin-Can Man" as the boys call him.

His costume was made out of sweats and an oil funnel.

Andrew as "The Scarecrow."

His is made from scraps, pieces of the Indiana Jones costume, and shredded grocery bags.

Timothy as "The Cowardly Lion"-- He's roaring in the picture.

His costume is make out of a yellow towel and brown felt.

Philip as "Toto."

For his costume I just put ears on his hat and dressed him in dark clothes.

The Whole Family (Derek and I didn't dress up, we're just boring I guess).

When I was taking pictures of everyone, Kylie wouldn't stand still long enough to get a picture of just her. But as you can see in looking back at some of the photos, she was Dorothy. She even had ruby slippers, they were her favorite part-- she loves cute shoes. :)

Trunk-or-Treating:

Our ward had a Halloween party and as part of it we did Trunk-or-treating (cars line up in the parking lot and the kids go trick-or-treating to the trunks where people are waiting to give them candy). The kids had lots of fun. Here's a few photos from that:

Timothy helping Kylie get some candy

Getting candy from "The Yellow Brick Road"

Getting candy from "Glenda" (the good witch from The Wizard of Oz)

Brian giving out candy-- he loves that job

The whole family at our trunk

(too bad, Philip decided to take his hat off just in time for the picture)

Halloween at "The National Air and Space Museum":

The National Air and Space Museum had a Halloween celebration. We decided to go check it out. It was quite the adventure! We had to wait in line to even get in to the parking lot. Once we got in the parking lot we got one of the last parking spots. The parking lot holds 2000 cars and was full of all mini-vans and SUV's, so you can imagine how many people were there. It was the same day as our party at church so after all the waiting in line (we also had to wait in line to get in to the building) we didn't have much time to enjoy ourselves. But we did get to do the main thing we came for and that was to get our pictures taken with Star Wars characters. (The things one does just to meet Darth Vadar.)

We are wondering how many blogs this picture has ended up on. When the kids posed for it everyone standing around thought it was so cute that they were all taking pictures too. I could barely even get in to get a picture of my own kids. Derek who was standing just to the side looking out at everyone said it was quite funny to see all the cameras.

Since we were at The Air and Space Museum we thought we needed at least

one picture with airplanes.

Waiting in line

Waiting to go inside-- notice all the mini-vans and SUV's in the parking lot

Andrew checking out the large telescope

Brian checking out the large telescope

Timothy checking out the large telescope

School Party:

Our elementary school had a Halloween party, although it wasn't called that. To be politically correct they couldn't call it a Halloween party so it was a Fall party and costumes were encouraged. The kids had lots of fun playing all the games.

Digging for treasures

Football toss

Basketball throw

The Duck Pond

Golfing

Timothy needed a little help trying to figure out how to golf (sorry Scott and Rob, we just aren't golfers at our house). So Derek stepped in to show him what he needed to do. When Derek let go of the golf club Timothy swung at the ball so hard the club came up and hit Derek in the side. Those of us watching got quite a laugh. Derek stepped out of the way for the next swing and only narrowly missed getting hit again. Who knew golf could be so dangerous. :)

Making spin art

Kylie and Philip got to use the last few tickets.

Here is Kylie waiting with her tickets.

Catching Ducks-- she loved catching them so she just kept picking them up with no regard to the only one rule.

Philip waiting with his tickets

Catching ducks

Carving Pumpkins:

Of course we carved pumpkins-- it's the longest standing family tradition we have since Derek and I did it while we were dating (it was actually our first date).

The cutting begins

Removing the tops

Cleaning out the insides

Kylie was really into the cleaning part. She was our best cleaner until she started putting the "pumpkin guts" back in so she could dig them out again.

Carving.

We have these child safe knives, so all the children got to do some cutting. They loved it.

Brian and Andrew cut their pumpkins out all by themselves.

Even the babies got to do some cutting

When they weren't helping with the cutting the babies entertained themselves by

sharpening all the pencils.

The finished products

Brian and his pumpkin

Andrew and his two-faced pumpkin

Timothy and his pumpkin

Showing them off in front of the house

Our Halloween Celebration:
Since Halloween was on Sunday this year we didn't participate in trick-or-treating. Instead we took Derek's sister who was visiting us to see the Washington D.C. temple. We decided it would be great to get away from the house for the evening and what better way to remember the dead. :)

The boys following President Thomas S. Monson's counsel that,

"As we touch the temple, the temple will touch us."

"The Loveland Girls"

Trying out the "Love Bench"

It was a "Love Bench," we just couldn't resist.

Besides I thought it made for a happy ending to the post since now I can say,

"They lived happily ever after!"

(My Halloween post is late but at least I managed to get it posted before Thanksgiving!)

Veteran's Day- Arlington National Cemetery

2010-11-11T10:52:00.009-05:00

In honor of Veteran's Day I thought I would share some photos of Arlington National Cemetery. These were taken by some of our recent visitors-- thanks Brittany, Dusty, and Ian for the photos.

The Tomb of The Unknown Soldier

Arlington Memorial Theater

Arlington House (Home of Robert E. Lee)

View from Arlington House overlooking D.C.

Slave Quarters for The Arlington House

The Eternal Flame at John F. Kennedy's gravesite-- Arlington House is at the top of the hill behind it.

And last but not least-- my favorite photo:

My Veteran!

(I'm so grateful that he's the live one in the picture.)

(I know, I know-- two posts in one week, amazing isn't it! Go me!!)

Finally-- a real update!!

2010-11-08T21:14:00.001-05:00

Wow, it's been so long since I've updated this thing!! (Does anybody even check it anymore??) I really have thought a lot about it and even tried a few times-- there are 6 different posts in my draft file that have never been posted. I blame it on my camera. Apparently my new camera seems to take most pictures in a file size that is too large for the photo program I use to post pictures with. So it wouldn't post half of the pictures I put in the slideshows. So before I could post any pictures I had to search for a program that would accept my pictures and then I had to figure out how to use it. Since I have so much spare time on my hands this was quite the task. :) In fact, I'm still working on perfecting it. But before too much more time went by I decided that I needed to at least post something. I know there is no way I can really do an update-- too much has happened. So I will make a list highlighting some of our activities and share a picture or two with little commentary since I know it's just the pictures you want to see anyway. :)

Some of the things we have done include:

fishing- the big boys each caught two fish,
attended a Utah Jazz basketball game,
visited Mt Vernon- multiple times,
visited the National Zoo and saw a real panda bear,
(Kylie made friends with a Meerkat.)
visited a national wetlands and saw lots of animals-the snake was the all time favorite,
visited the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum,
visited the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History-- the boys each got to hold a caterpillar and we all got to walk through the Butteryfly Garden,
visited the Pentagon-- no cameras allowed so no pictures,
summer long swimming lessons for everyone-- Brian is totally swimming on his own, Andrew is close to swimming on his own, Timothy is getting better all the time, Philip hated it and cried unless he was with his Auntie, and Kylie was a little fish and loved it;
visited Palmyra, New York and saw all the church history sites there including getting to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant,
celebrated the 4th of July-- we watched the National fireworks from the lawn of the Pentagon.
visited family and friends in Idaho (sorry no pictures of the karaoke, I was too busy singing),
Brian's baptism,
(The musical number was done by "The Loveland Boys." They did very well and were so handsome.)
Brian became a Cub Scout and earned his Bobcat,
the first day of school,

(Timothy started preschool too.)

attended a high school football game,--they gave out cardboard megaphones that the kids had tons of fun playing with,
hosted several visitors including both mine and Derek's parents, my sister, Derek's sister, and a family friend-- we had tons of fun showing them many of the local sites,

When I'm not trying to figure out how to post the pictures from my camera, I'm looking for the camera. The children (mostly the babies) are always running off with it. Therefore I end up with lots of pictures like these that I have to sift through too:

I just couldn't resist. I have to post some of the cute photos of the babies. They are just too cute:

Even being surrounded by all the boys she is ALL girl-- I just

found her all dressed up like this one day.

Kylie's first piggy-tails

Philip thinking he's helping Daddy move the refrigerator in.

Proof that Philip is following in Timothy's footsteps.

I have photos just like this of T.

The babies love to play together and are great at sharing.

I think they really do have a special relationship.

They are so fun to watch together.

It just wouldn't seem like a real post if I didn't end it with Timothy. :)

Climbing in the bushes.

One of the worst episodes of "Mystery Trouble" from the summer.

(Most I don't take time to take pictures of. I'm too busy cleaning them up.

Just as an FYI though, 5 pounds of flour spread all over your kitchen and then danced in by three small children is a huge mess!! But the flour by itself is still easier to clean up then the little area where they mixed it with a cube of butter.)

He had a little too much fun with the scissors and the trampoline net.

Well that's it for now. I know, you are wondering, "What about Halloween?" Well, the camera is lost again and until I find it there are no Halloween photos. I promise I will post them-- hopefully sooner than later. :)

THE END!

Something

2010-08-23T22:54:00.002-04:00

Wow, it's been a long time since anyone has updated this. We are all still alive and doing well. Jodi and the kids are enjoying family back home while I stay home and continue working on my thesis. Once I get it done I don't think I ever want to look at it again. I guess the lesson is, "just be happy with your bachelors degree!" :)

The biggest thing coming up for our family is Brian's baptism. He'll be baptized on the 4th of September. Jodi and I are amazed at how quickly 8 years has gone by. Our little boy is on the verge of becoming a young man. He's a great brother to his younger siblings and Jodi and I are quite proud of him.

Well, I'm not Jodi and don't have time to do a mega post anyway. I just couldn't let the time between posts keep piling up. Besides, it's more interesting checking everyone's blogs than writing about German-Turks anyway.

Reflections Contest

2010-03-01T07:50:00.005-05:00

Brian and Andrew participated in the PTA Reflections contest at school. They love to take pictures so they entered in the photography category. The theme for this year was "Beauty is . . ." Brian decided that beauty was a baby so he took a picture of Kylie. Andrew decided that beauty was a brother smiling and took a picture of Brian. They were both cute pictures and the boys had fun taking them. They submitted the pictures way back in the Fall and we just had the awards ceremony last week. Brian won 2nd place in his division (K-2nd). He was so excited. Andrew was a bit disappointed when he didn't win anything but he did get excited when one of the PTA ladies in charge said that his picture was her favorite. They both got certificates of participation and Brian got a medal for 2nd place. Here's a few pictures:

Brian getting his medal-- I just about missed it because I didn't have the camera ready:

Brain and his medal:

Andrew getting his certificate:

Andrew and his certificate:

Brian getting his certificate:

Brian and his certificate:

Brian and Andrew:

Andrew holding his picture:

Brian holding his picture:

Brian's original photo:

Andrew's original photo:

Sledding

2010-02-28T21:50:00.002-05:00

After having our snow for over two weeks we finally made it out to play in it last Saturday. Derek was out in the garage and saw the sled and decided to to pull it out even though it was almost dark outside. Sometimes we are so spontaneous! :) We spent about an hour outside sledding in our own front yard. Thanks to the large piles of snow that still remained it worked great. Even the babies went down a few times. Kylie liked it much better than Philip who cried almost the whole time. It was actually Kylie's first time to be out in the snow. She was asleep when we played in it back in December. Here are a few photos of our evening sledding run.

Major REWIND!!

2010-02-19T20:11:00.005-05:00

Okay, so even though I said I would, I didn't get my Halloween photos posted before New Years, but I have a good excuse-- my mom gave me permission to wait until after the holidays were over. Moms always knows best-- right!! (Thanks Mom for the break!) I'm sure she wasn't thinking that all our January birthdays and Valentine's Day were included when she said "holidays" with an "s" but, hey, as kids we take all we can get right. :) Anyways, finally here is a post to cover the last several months.

Rewind way way back to October:

Pumpkin carving:

Costumes and Halloween:

For the Harvest Party at the boys school the kids wore different costumes then they did on Halloween. For the school party Brian was Indiana Jones again, Andrew was a dinosaur again, Timothy was a knight, Kylie was Cinderella, and Philip was a Jack-o-lantern a.k.a Cinderella's pumpkin. For Halloween Brian was a clone trooper from Star Wars, Andrew was Indiana Jones, Timothy was a dinosaur and Kylie was Cinderella again and Philip was still a pumpkin. We had a fun Halloween. The boys enjoyed trick-or-treating and Kylie and Philip enjoyed helping hand out the candy.

The whole "Gang"

Philip & Kylie:

Timothy:

Andrew:

Brian:

The Family-- at Trunk-or-Treating:

Philip & Kylie waiting on the doorstep to help hand out candy:

The boys trick-or-treating:

The twins turned 9 months old this month:

Timothy:

He is our mischief maker that loves to make messes! Just in case anyone wants to know how to get permanent marker out of the carpet, hand sanitizer is the trick. I can know testify that it works great! Too bad I couldn't use it on Kylie's face. :)

This picture doesn't even do justice to what it really looked like. (But then again maybe nothing looks as bad as the memorable images of food coloring in my mind :)). It took almost a whole 12 oz. bottle of sanitizer to get it out.

Rewind way back to November:

Brian and Andrew joined flag football teams. Brian's team didn't have a coach so Derek stepped right up and took the job. No one had to twist his arm as coaching is his dream job. All three boys enjoyed the season and had lots of fun. Timothy wanted to participate so bad. Many times I had to run out on the field and grab him. I was a psuedo assistant coach helping Derek out and even taking over practice when he couldn't make it. Someday I might actually learn how to play the game. It's really hard to teach plays to 7 and 8 year old boys when you don't understand them yourself. But I faked it well. :)

Andrew was a Running Back and this is him practicing "his" play:

At his first game:

This is where he hung out when it was his turn to be on the side line-- on his coaches shoulders. :)

I was usually too busy during Brian's practices to get pictures but I did get some of his games. He was the Center on his team.

(Coaches were allowed on the field during the game so that's why you see Derek too.)

Here's Derek doing his thing:

Waiting on the sidelines:

Thanksgiving Tree:

We made our annual Thanksgiving Tree (everyone writes something they are thankful for on a leaf when they put it on the tree and there can be no doubles). It is one of our long standing family traditions. It's always fun to see what the boys say they are thankful for.

Timothy:
Timothy decided that it had been awhile since he visited the ER and it was time to go again. He informed Derek on the way there that he likes the hospital. So anyways, one night as we were putting T to bed he informs us that he swallowed a coin. We thought nothing of it and whisked him off to bed. After a short time we heard him crying and went to check on him. We found him in his bed screaming and writhing in pain. He couldn't lay still it hurt so bad. He kept telling us he wanted that quarter to come out. A quarter!! So off he and Derek went to the ER. They did some x-rays and confirmed that sure enough it was a quarter and it was stuck about half way down his esophagus. After lots of looking the doctor determined that T would be alright and the quarter would just pass through on it's own. That it did, but it was not a fun experience. Poor T was in pain all night as it slowly moved down to his stomach. It took all night to get there. Silly kid! A few days later I found him lecturing the babies about not eating quarters. :)

We enjoyed a long awaited trip home to visit family for Thanksgiving. It was really fun but it was jam packed with activities and went by way too fast. The kids did really well on the trip. The babies did great on their first flight even if they were sick. People were often amazed to see our whole family truckin' through the airport. It was an adventure but it was worth it and the kids can't wait for the next one.

Kylie & Philip on the airplane:

This month the twins turned 10 months old:

Rewind back to December:

When we sang "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" we didn't expect it to come true, but it did. We even got snowed in and they canceled the last three days of school before the break. It was awesome!! We had almost 2 feet of snow. We were literally "snowed in." We couldn't open our front door. To get outside we had to use the garage door. Because it opened up and not out we could get it open. It took Derek over 5 hours to shovel the snow from our driveway. Good thing our neighbors had an extra snow shovel we could borrow since we didn't even have one. Here's a few pictures we got of the snow:

On Christmas Eve we wanted to do something special. Last year we went to Medieval Times. This year we went to ICE. It was an indoor wonderland made entirely of ice. It was really cool-- in more ways then one! :) It was only 9 degrees inside with the ice. They gave everyone special coats to keep warm. It was fun and the sculptures were so pretty. The boys thought it was neat too. Their favorite part, of course, were the big ice slides they got to slide down. Timothy went down at least a dozen times. I took several pictures but sadly I have none to show. Our camera went AWOL somewhere in the last 100 feet of the exhibit. I put it in the cupholder of the stroller and just before we left we realized it was gone. We aren't sure if it got knocked out, or if Timothy took it out and did something with it or the worst case scenario-- someone took it. We searched for it for over 30 minutes and checked with the lost and found several times before we gave up. We even called back everyday for the next few days after and nothing. So sadly, no pictures and our camera is gone, but at least I had just downloaded the memory card and so the only pictures we lost were of ICE. Here is a you-tube video link to see some of the sculptures instead:

Since we lost our camera we had to buy the photo they took. Don't we look so cute in our special blue coats:

Christmas Day:

Guess what I got for Christmas-- a camera!! I couldn't go without one for the holidays so we stopped by Target on the way home and had just enough time to purchase one of their remaining cameras before they closed. Thank goodness they were still open! They only had like 4 different ones left but at least something was better than nothing. We ended up with one from the same series and brand as what we had. I don't like it as quite as much as our old one but it's pretty nice and will be a fine replacement.

Anyways, Santa found our house and the boys got what they wanted so everyone was happy. The babies even had some fun opening their presents but I think the boys had more fun helping them.

This slide show is way long-- its all for the grandparents! :)

Timothy:

Timothy enjoyed his trip to the ER so much last month that he decided to do it again this month. (Sigh!) We were putting him in the tub before bed one night only to discover a tick right in the middle of his back. I know, you are thinking-- it's December, where do ticks come from in the winter, that's what we thought too. Who knows, but none the less he got one anyway. He hadn't even been outside, it's too cold. Anyway, during the summer the kids get ticks all the time just from being in our backyard. (Lovely, I know). So, after finding it, I moaned and then proceeded to try and pull it out just like I have a million times. But this little bugger decided to be difficult and wouldn't come out. He was "dug-in" pretty far. So after trying for along time to no avail Derek finally took him in to the ER. The crazy thing was the Doctor told him it was the 4th tick he had removed that day. Go figure!!

This month the twins turned 11 months old (these pictures are special for you Suzie--thanks for the cute sweaters!):

They were holding hands-- I just missed it.

Just for Rob:

I had to take these just to prove that Derek can grow some facial hair-- this is almost a weeks worth of growth. (Don't laugh Rob!)

Temple:

We got to go see the Christmas lights at the D.C. temple again this year. They were beautiful! It was so cold the night we went but we had fun anyway. I couldn't help but remember when we went last year-- I was very pregnant and I'm not sure how I walked around to see them, but I did. I enjoyed them much more this year. :)

Rewind to January:

We had a little New Year's party as a family. We did the same thing last year and the boys had so much fun they looked forward to doing it again this year. We ate lots of food and played games (Derek and I don't remember Twister being so tiring as a kid).

Fantasy Football came to and end this month. Sadly I wasn't able to keep a reign on my championship. I lost in the first round of the playoffs. But Derek on the other hand played better than he has ever played before. So after like 20 years or so of playing he finally won a championship. Go Derek!! Brian and Andrew played this year too. We set up a little league just for them. They had fun playing too and actually stayed interested all season. Thanks to those of you with kids who played with them. Hope to see you again next year.

The Raiders played a team from our area so they actually broadcast the game on TV and we could watch it. It was a big event at our house (Derek is a huge Raiders fan). Here is a picture of us all on the couch wearing our Raiders shirts (thanks Suzie & Rob) wrapped in the Raider blanket. Go Raiders!! It was a fun family activity-- even if the Raiders did lose. :(

Intently watching the game-- Timothy changed out of his Raiders shirt part way through:

Timothy is just a bit confused-- He wears his Seahawks outfit, tells you he is Jay Cutler (QB for the Bears), and roots for the Raiders.

Building:

We got a new entertainment center and some more bookshelves. Derek and the kids had lots of fun building them. (Brian helped too, I just didn't get any pictures of him-- oops!)

One Year Old:

Our little twins are now a year old. We can't believe that we have had them for a whole year. The time has gone by so quickly! It just blows my mind when I think about it. They are a lot of work but they are a joy too. It's hard to imagine life without them now.

Since Derek's birthday is only a few days after the twins, we celebrated them all together on a day when everyone was home. We had a fun and chaotic party, that seems to be how everything goes at our house. Here's some photos of the birthday party and eating the cakes:

Timothy:

Well it wasn't food coloring or permanent marker he found this time, instead it was ceramic paint-- red of course. Why is it always red! I'm guessing from the crime scene that he decided he wanted to paint a picture. So he got out the paint he found and got some paper. He didn't have a paint brush so he used his sock-- which I found completely drenched in paint in the dryer on top of the clean clothes that had just been dried. The little red finger prints on the dryer door led me to it. :) I found the picture under the bed. He had done the painting in the hallway and then tried to clean things up in the bathroom. So with all the rooms involved you can imagine the size of the mess. Luckily, the paint is water based so with my trusty "Green Machine" shampooer I was able to save the carpet. (Maybe I should go into carpet cleaning when I grow up). It was funny-- as I scrubbed away on the carpet Timothy stood there next to me for a little while disgusted saying, "Dang it! Dang it! Dang it!" over and over again. I guess he was upset that the paint had spilled all over the floor. Then when I wasn't looking he put his coat on and snuck out the front door to the neighbors house where his older brothers were playing. Good thing I heard the door so he wasn't too hard to find. While I was shampooing away I noticed myself singing-- not an uncommon thing. Yes-- when you clean messes like this up everyday it's enough of a common occurance that you can sing while you clean. :) Anyway, I happened to stop long enough to really hear the words I was singing. They were from a favorite primary song: "Our Heavenly Father loves them, he loves them, loves them, everyone." I was reminded at that moment that even as I was shampooing the carpet and being exasperated by my little son that my Heavenly Father loves me-- even if he did send me Timothy. :) I also was reminded that no matter what he does He loves Timothy too. I am very grateful for the sweet primary songs I learned as a child and the sweet messages they can teach us even as adults. Later that night I was teasing Derek telling him to please remind in case I forget due to PTSD or something that someday when Timothy has a little son to make sure when we visit him that I slip him red food coloring and paint and tell him the carpet makes a great canvas. Derek didn't even smile and just said, "Honey, that's not fair to his poor wife!" (Oh, how sweet!) I had to admit he was right!! Hmm. . . maybe I'll take her on vacation and leave Timothy with the kids. . . .

Fast Forward to the the Present-- February:

Well when the Groundhog saw his shadow and said we would have 6 more weeks of winter he really meant it for us. We had one of the largest snow storms in history for this area. We thought we had a lot of snow back in December when it stormed but that was small compared to this. We got almost 3 feet of snow!! Several people lost power but lucky for us we didn't. We didn't have any problems. We just stayed home and enjoyed being together. Plus I got a start on my spring cleaning. The boys loved that! :) The boys ended up missing 8 days of school, Derek missed almost a week of work, and we missed two weeks of church. Even now we still have over 2 feet of snow in our yard. It is melting but not very quickly.

Silly me didn't get any pictures of all the snow, but we did get these of some of our ice-sicles:

This is the wreath on our front door:

This one was on the back of our house. Luckily it was just outside the window so Derek could reach out get it:

Here is a slide show of some cute photos that just didn't have a spot but were too cute not to post.

That's all for now. Hopefully it won't be as long of a break until I post again. (Hope that helped with your "photo fix" Dad Loveland).

Santa

2009-12-20T23:34:00.005-05:00

The children finally got to see Santa on Friday at the Christmas party at our church. They were pretty excited to get to talk to him, especially Andrew who kept changing his mind all evening as to what he was going to ask for. He wanted to make sure he asked for what he really wanted. He even tried to talk his brothers into asking for things he wanted. Smart kid!

Brian:

Andrew:

Timothy:

Kylie:

Philip:

"The Babies":

"The Boys":

"The Kids!":

Chocolate Dipping

2009-12-18T02:58:00.003-05:00

It's a Loveland Family tradition to dip chocolates for Christmas. Our boys are the fifth generation to participate in the tradition. Although we aren't around to participate in the big event with the family we always try to do some on our own too. Ours are always a little different due to Andrew's allergies. Usually I make "Andrew safe" chocolate and we use chocolate molds. This year we put a new twist on it and used the chocolate fountain. We all enjoyed a fun evening of "chocolate dipping."

We're Still Alive!!

2009-12-18T02:55:00.004-05:00

I know I haven't posted in forever-- it's always on my to-do list but never seems to get done. Don't give up on me, I will get my Halloween pictures posted before New Years (hopefully) just keep checking back. :)

Veteran's Day

2009-11-11T15:32:00.005-05:00

Here are some Veteran's Day pictures of the babies. I was trying to be creative. Clearly I am not a photographer but they are kind of cute.

Philip:

Kylie:

Thank you Veterans for all you do and have done. We love you Daddy and Grandpa D!!

Just Win Babies!

2009-10-13T08:01:00.004-04:00

As if there weren't enough slide shows on here already, but I just had to add this one! At Derek's work it's a big thing to decorate your cubicle with paraphernalia from your favorite team. So I dressed the babies in some Raider outfits and took some pictures. Then with the help of Snapfish made a poster with a collage of these 30 pictures. It turned out really cool and added that last touch to his cubicle to make it "Raidery." It was also a big hit among his co-workers who think its one of the best paraphernalia things they have seen. We titled the poster "Just Win Babies" because its a Raider saying, only the original saying isn't plural. (Now if they could really just win!!)

We actually have a picture of each one of the kids wearing the black Raiders outfit sitting on this blanket-- somewhere!

Firsts!

2009-09-30T14:16:00.014-04:00

Wow it has been a long time since I made a post!! Time does fly when you're having fun-- and when you are really busy! The babies have their days and nights mixed up so a lot of the time I don't even know what day it is since I haven't slept yet. :) So it's with groggy eyes that I make this post now-- so over look the typos and sentences that don't make sense and just enjoy all the pictures. :) To save time I will post a lot of slide shows so hopefully they work for you. If not, sorry!!

Since I last posted we have had a lot of "firsts." I guess that can be expected when it's the babies "first" year of life, but we have had some "firsts" for the rest of the family too. So I guess that will be the theme of this post: FIRSTS.

FIRST, this is the FIRST post in a long time which also makes it the FIRST post this month, too bad it's the last day of the month and will also be the last one this month too. (Just had to add those ones to the list-- I am tired remember).

FIRST off, I know you all want to know about the babies. Over the last three months since I posted they have turned 6 months, 7 months, and now 8 months old. They are really growing up! They are doing quite well, other then deciding when to sleep. :) Philip can sit up and is almost crawling. Even though he's not officially crawling yet he gets around all over by rolling and scooting. He is very independent. Kylie, on the other hand, knows she is a princess and wants to be doted on. So instead of sitting up and getting around on her own she is content to just lay on her blanket and have things handed to her. Silly girl! They are both very smiley and are well known at church for giving smilies to anyone who will look at them. They love to babel and Kylie can even click her tongue and blow raspberries.

They just had their check up last week and here are their stats:

Philip:

Weight: 19.9 pounds, 60th %tile

Height: 29.3 inches, 95th %tile

Kylie:

Weight: 15.5 pounds, 15 %tile

Height: 26.8 inches, 54 %tile

Here are some slide shows of pics of them at each of their monthly birthdays:

6 months:

7 months:

8 months:

As mentioned before, the babies have had a lot of FIRSTS. One, that I got some pictures of was their FIRST taste of baby food. Philip always wants food so bad but then when you give him a taste he always pulls a face like he doesn't like it. Kylie loves food and will happily gobble up anything you give her.

Their FIRST taste of baby food, I think it was sweet potatoes:

We finally found a food that Philip loves without pulling a yucky face when he eats it-- french fries. Kylie didn't get any since she was asleep while we were eating them but Philip loved them and would even reach out and grab them if I held one up.

His FIRST french fries:

The boys took swimming lessons all summer. One of the days after their lessons we got to stay and play in the pool as a family. So the babies got to go swimming for the FIRST time. They don't really like water and so they actually didn't enjoy it much. Babies are supposed to like water since it reminds them of being in-utero. It was so cramped in there maybe mine don't want to remember it. (He-he!!)

FIRST swimming photos:

Here are some other cute pics of the babies (sorry it's really long):

My youngest sister visited us over the summer. While she was here we took her to see the National Mall. So the babies had their FIRST trip to the Mall. We didn't have time to go until late in the evening so it was very late at night when we got home. The Mall is lit up and is very beautiful at night. It is also still very busy. It was amazing how many people were still there. The bad thing we discovered was that at night the rats come out. They were everywhere! For most people it probably wasn't a problem, I doubt most people saw them. But for me it was a big problem! I am like deathly afraid rodents such as rats and mice. Since there are so many people around the little critters weren't scared of us either. I was trying to be brave and was doing okay until we headed down a path that wasn't as lit and one came running up from behind me and then ran past me only inches away from my feet. Then only seconds later one ran in front of the stroller I was pushing so close that I almost ran over it. AAHHH!! I just about lost it then. Derek almost had to give me a piggy-back ride out of the place. Timothy wouldn't have been too happy about that since he was the one getting the piggy-back ride. But I sucked it up and trecked on and we made it to the car fine thanks to my sister who stood next to me and stomped all the rest of the way to the car in order to scare them away. Thanks Sis!! Anyways, heres some pics of the event:

While my sweet sister was here we also went to our FIRST 3-D movie. It was a first for everyone except Derek and my sister. Not only was it the babies FIRST 3-D movie it was their FIRST movie at a movie theater too. They did really well. They actually slept through most of it. The boys did really well too except that Timothy wouldn't keep his glasses on. They need to make a size that fits kids better. The movie we went to was G-Force. The kids wanted to see it really bad. We actually ended up seeing it on opening night without even planning it. It was much cuter than I had anticipated. It always makes me laugh when the kids are playing and I hear Andrew shout, "G-Force in the house!" He even has the pose to go with it.

Some pics from the theater:

While my sister was here Andrew decided to get out one of his large puzzles and got us working on it. We put together a 1000 piece puzzle. When we were finally finished it felt like quite the accomplishment. It was a FIRST for all of us to put together a puzzle that large.

The finished puzzle:

With football season upon us, it is Fantasy Football time again. During the few weeks before the season started Derek and I were busy drafting our teams. Brian and Andrew became quite interested and wanted to know when it was going to be their turn to draft. So we set up a special league for them so they could play too. Thanks to all those who are playing with them. They had a great time drafting. It was a live draft via the internet. Each person had like 3 minutes to make a pick. We had explained to the boys how to read the cheat sheets to know who the best players were. But it didn't matter. They picked players according to what team they were on and whether they liked their name or not. It was quite funny. They ended up with some interesting teams. Brian had the first pick of the draft. I had showed him who the best players were and he was going to draft one of them. While we were waiting for the draft to begin he asked me who the Raider's quarterback was (Andrew is a Raider fan and Brian is a Seahawks fan). I showed him who he was, JaMarcus Russell. He told me that he wanted him. He was rated like 28 or something like that out of 32 so I pointed out to him that he could wait to draft him until later in the draft and he would still be there reminding him that he wanted a quarterback closer to number 1. He knew how to run the draft on his own so the second it started he drafted JaMarcus Russell. Then he immediately turned to Andrew and with a big smile on his face said, "I got your quarterback!" Ah, sibling rivalry! Much later in the draft Brian finally drafted Peyton Manning, the quarteback for the Colts. He was rated at about a 4 this year and has been a number 1 or 2 in the past few years. After the draft was over it was time to set the team line-ups. I was reminding Brian that he probably wanted to put his higher ranking players in to begin with. So we put Peyton Manning in. As soon as I turned away from the computer he went back in and put JaMarcus Russell in and benched Manning. Derek and I just laughed. We figured that had to be a FIRST since no one who knows anything would ever bench Manning for Russell.

Some pics of the boys drafting (Derek helped Andrew and I helped Brian):

Going over the cheat sheet

Brian drafting

Andrew drafting

Brian consulting the cheat sheet

The boys had their FIRST day of school. I know, everyone else had this a long time ago, but since we don't start until the day after Labor Day it was much more recent for us. Andrew started kindergarten so it was really his FIRST day of school as well as his FIRST time to ride the school bus. He was way excited to go. Both boys like school and are doing well. It has been a big adjustment for Andrew since kindergarten here is full day and he never went to any kind of pre-school or pre-k program. His teacher so far is good about working with his allergies so we will hope that all goes well with that. At least he's not the only child in his class with a peanut allergy. There is another little girl. So they sit together at the peanut-free table at lunch and Andrew thinks of her as his best friend. His was quite sad when she missed a day of school last week.

FIRST day of school pics (the boys picked to wear their matching shirts themselves, I had nothing to do with it. They also made sure that their attire matched in some way for the whole FIRST week of school. I think they like going to school together.):

HERE!!

I know this one may seem amazing but Timothy and Andrew ate their FIRST ice cream cones. They had never had one before. Derek and I prefer our ice cream in a bowl rather than in a cone so we just never buy cones to eat at home and with Andrew's allergies we never buy them from a restaurant. The boys got coupons for ice cream cones in their prizes for the summer reading program and that got us talking about them. The boys were so excited about them. We quickly realized that we had deprived them of this special childhood treat and had them as a Family Home Evening treat. Talk about a big hit. It was almost as popular as root bear floats. The kids can't wait until it's time to have another.

We took our FIRST metro ride. (Derek rides the metro to work everyday but the rest of us had never ridden it.) We rode into D.C. to the Verizon Center and went to "Walking with Dinosaurs an Arena Spectacular." It was the FIRST big event we have gone to as a whole family. It was quite an adventure but it was lots of fun! Derek had Philip in a tummy-pack and I had Kylie in a tummy-pack with the other 3 boys trailing behind. I'm sure it was quite a sight as we got a lot of looks from people, but at least they were all quick to move out of our way. :) The boys loved the train ride. Timothy keeps asking when we are going to ride it again. The dinosaur show was, as it says, spectacular. It included 15 life-size dinosaurs that were robotic so they came out and walked around, chased each other, and growled at us. The story line was set up with a paleontologist who was walking us through the time of dinosaurs showing them to us. It was really quite interesting and I learned some things. The boys LOVED it!! Even the babies were totally enthralled through the whole thing. The dinosaurs really looked so real. Here is a link that shows a preview for the show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_zbUp-M1Z4&feature=fvw

Here's a few pics from the adventure:

Oh, I almost forgot, Brian had a birthday in July. Since we moved the day after his birthday that means we have now lived here for 1 year. So we made it through our FIRST year here. We can't believe we have been here this long already. We really like it here and are happy that we will be here for a few more years.

Now for an update on Derek's thesis. He is still working on getting it done. Someday it will be finished! So he is still working on his FIRST masters. (He hopes to get another one someday that's why I can say FIRST.) He has started his new job, which is his FRIST job since being a student, and so far he really likes it. But he does feel a little out of place at times since he is the only one in his office that isn't a Lt Colonel or Colonel. Nothing like being the low man on the totem pole. The people in his office are really into football. On his FIRST meeting with the commander the FIRST question he was asked was, "Who's your favorite team?" Once again Derek is a minority in his like for the Raiders. The other guys at work teased him when they FIRST found out saying they had never met anyone who was a Raiders fan. His FIRST tasking from the commander was to go home and buy a jersey. They have tailgate parties every week and everyone has to wear their team's jersey. Derek was excited about getting a jersey. He has wanted one his whole life but never gotten one. So now he has his FIRST jersey and he loves it, he also loves that he has a reason to wear it. Now he is shopping for his second jersey and he wants the spikey shoulder pads and face paint to go with it. Anybody know where we can get spikey shoulder pads? :)

Hmm. . . working on this post has left Timothy unattended. Not a good thing. :) I usually seem to end these mega posts with pics of him, but I think I will save you from the pics this time and just tell you about it. I just found him outside jumping on the trampoline, not a bad thing, except that he was doing it buck naked! :)His clothes are strewn all over the tramp around him. Normally in a backyard that wouldn't be to bad. But in our backyard we have a nature trail right behind our back fence that has runners and walkers on it all the time. Hope no one ran/walked by and saw the show. :) Earlier this summer I got the boys some cheap little water guns to play with it. They were running around in the backyard spraying each other having a great time. Then a guy ran by on the trail and they all ran after him spraying him with their guns. Boys will be boys!!

I always have to keep my eye on that Timothy. On Saturday we went to Lowe's as a family, another adventure. :) After checking out, we were standing outside in front of the store gathering everything out of the cart. I looked down and noticed that Timothy was holding one of those mega packs of batteries. It was not on our list so I asked Derek if he knew anything about them and he didn't. Apparently Timothy had picked them up from the display near the register and had just carried them out. We quickly ran them back inside and put them where they belonged. Good thing Uncle Trevor doesn't work at that store! :) Silly kid!!

Okay I did find some cute pics of him to post here. We found him like this after we got home from church one day. I guess he was too tired to make it upstairs to change his clothes.

Here is one last slide show with some cute pics that didn't get posted anywhere else:

Baby Talk

2009-08-01T00:47:00.003-04:00

Here's a quick video I took of Philip awhile ago. He really likes to babble.

Mega-Post Time Again!!

2009-07-12T02:29:00.001-04:00

Wow--another month has gone by and no time for blogging! As always things here have been so hectic. It seems like we are always hurrying somewhere. Some of that has to do with having so much to do and some of it is just because it takes so much longer for us all to get in the car. :) Brian didn't finish school until June 18th and Derek is frantically trying to get his thesis done. He spends every second working on it and it's still only half done. Ugh! Can't wait until it's finished! Anyway, we'll start with the most recent and go back from there.

5 Months Old:

The twins turned 5 months old on June 26th. They had a Well Child Check on Thursday and here are their stats:

Philip:

17.2 pounds, 75th %tile

26 inches long, 60th %tile

Kylie:

12.2 pounds, 3rd %tile

24 inches long, 10 %tile

As you can see they are doing very well. They are very smiley, happy babies. They smile at anyone that will look at them. They can roll over, although they don't do it very often, they can almost sit up, and they are really enjoying playing with the baby toys we have. They are beginning to eye our food and grab for it when we are eating. They can hardly wait until it's rice cereal time. One more month!

Here are some pictures that were taken on the day they turned 5 months old:

I LOVE this picture. We find them holding hands all the time.

Here are some random photos of the babies:

We thought this one was funny because they are laying exactly the same way.

We took this one to show off the hands.

Derek thought it was so funny to see his daughter just "racked out" on his bed so he had to take these ones.

The 4th of July:

Being so near to Washington D.C. we wanted to see the national capital's fireworks but we didn't want to fight the traffic and the mob of people. Being military we have access to military bases so we went to Bolling Air Force Base. It's right across the Potomac River from the National Mall. We had awesome seats with a great view and didn't have to fight the traffic or the mobs. The fireworks were very good. They were non-stop and like a constant finale from our home town. The actual finale had so many fireworks going off that it created a large plume of smoke. As the plume grew the fireworks slowly faded away behind it. The last few we only heard because the smoke was so thick. It was amazing! I got one picture and it's not so good. Sorry! But I wanted to watch the fireworks not take pictures. :)

While we were waiting for the fireworks they had activities going on around the base. The boys played one round of miniature golf. They all had fun and it was cute to watch them. Here is a slide show of some pictures I got:

Here are some photos we took while waiting for the fireworks to start:

Visitors:

My sisters have been visiting! My younger sister and her husband came out for a week to see the area, and of course us. My brother-in-law served his mission near here so he was excited to show the area off to his wife. This is my sister who also has twins (the kids all stayed home though) so she was excited to see mine. My youngest sister has also come to visit. She came to be Derek's "research assistant" to help him work on his thesis. She helps me with the kids too. :) We had lots of fun together and of course had a traditional midnight shopping trip to Wal-Mart. Of course we got matching shirts!

As you can see, we had lots of fun. Why am I the only one not laughing?!

I have one other sister who was not with us. We missed her! Don't worry, Suzie, we got you a matching shirt too!!!

Timothy's Birthday:

Timothy turned 3 at the end of June. Because we have been so busy we didn't get to celebrate it until about a week after the real date. Good thing he's only 3 and didn't realize it. But he had a fun birthday anyway. Here's a slideshow of of the event:

Swimming Lessons:

The boys have been taking swimming lessons. A sister in our ward teaches them at the home of another family in our ward that has a swimming pool. They have really been having fun and they are doing quite well. Brian is swimming he just needs to get the correct form down. Andrew and Timothy aren't far behind. Here is a slideshow of some pictures from the first day.

Timothy is getting quite the tan from being outside at the pool so much. With is blond hair he looks like a real little "beach bum."

More Critters in the Backyard:

The boys caught a frog in the backyard. They played with it all afternoon. We kept it in a jar over the weekend so Brian could take it to school for show-and tell. Then they took it back to the backyard and let it go.

Brian with his frog:

Letting the frog go. Can you see it?:

We see bunnies in our yard almost everyday. Here is one from a distance:

We have a lizard that lives somewhere near our back step. We see it often but haven't managed to get a picture yet. But it has a cool looking blue stripe on it's side.

Timothy:

As always it just wouldn't be a true mega-post without some Timothy shots. :)

Derek found him like this one day. I'm guessing he was looking for some clothes.

He loves his babies. He calls them "My twins." One day I found him reading his scriptures to Kylie.

Oh we love our Timothy!! Actually, we love them all!!

Our Little "Glirl"

2009-06-07T02:18:00.001-04:00

With today being D-Day (well it was when I started this post) I couldn't help but think of my Grandfather who was one of the many soldiers who stormed Omaha beach 65 years ago. So in remembrance of him I had to post this picture of our little girl.

As a little girl my grandfather would always tease my sisters and me (there were 4 of us) and call us "boys." We always tried to tell him we were not boys we were girls but he insisted on calling us boys. It especially upset my sister Becky, who is just one year younger than me. She was always quiet, so much so, that we often had people ask us if she could talk. She could, but she didn't need to since I so lovingly did it all for her. :) But when Grandpa called us boys she would pipe right up. She would always very adamantly tell Grandpa, "We are NOT boys, we are GLIRLS!!" That's not a typo, I do mean "Glirls." She couldn't say girls so it always came out sounding funny. Grandpa would always tease her saying, "Glirls? What's that?" She would always get so upset trying to explain everything to him and then he would continue to call us boys. Grandpa's not around anymore but if he was I know he would love this shirt. It makes me think of him every time I see it. I knew the first time I ever saw this shirt we had to have it, not only because of Grandpa, but also because of being in a family with so many brothers. We thought it was important to make sure people knew she wasn't a boy too. When we go out many people will comment and say things about us having only one girl and so may boys. Being the only one though she is going to be very spoiled. She has all her brothers (and her Dad) totally wrapped around her finger. She is definitely our little princess! (Hey, if she's a princess then as her mother that makes me a queen:) )

Speaking of little princesses and brothers we love this commercial-- even the boys. Things like this never happen at our house. :)

Bath Time

2009-06-07T01:09:00.008-04:00

I have been giving the babies their baths in the sink, but they are starting to get too big (well mostly just Philip) and don't fit as well anymore. So we tried out the big bathtub. The boys were so excited. They couldn't wait to help. How many boys does it take to bathe twins-- three! Here are some pictures of the event. Brian took all the pictures that he's not in.

Mother of the Year

2009-06-05T00:30:00.001-04:00

My friend Amy just sent me this award. Thought you all might want to see it. Thanks Amy!!!

CNNBC video

Shared via AddThis

Backyard Excitement

2009-05-31T01:30:00.007-04:00

Well, in reading other people's blogs it sounds like the ER was a busy place on Memorial Day. Hopefully everyone is doing well now. Thankfully it was not a place we visited that day. Our excitement of the day just doesn't compare. Derek was working on his Thesis and I was taking care of the babies while the boys were playing in the backyard. We heard a commotion and went outside to see this:

Timothy found a turtle in our backyard. He had lots of fun carrying it around and playing with it. He picked it up and carried it in the house. Brian got upset with him and made him take it outside. That was the commotion-- Brian yelling at him. He is so bossy! Hmm. . . I wonder where he got that from. (No comments please!) Later we heard a commotion again and it was Andrew yelling this time. He came running in telling us that Timothy was driving the turtle around in the jeep. It had a nice ride around the backyard. They played with it all afternoon. We finally got them to leave it alone and it went to it's "habitat" according to Andrew. Timothy is always scouring the backyard for it but hasn't found it again. It scares me somewhat as to how easily he picked it up and played with it. Who knows what else he might bring in to me. Hopefully nothing too scary. In our backyard we have had squirrels, frogs, lizards, bunnies, a deer, a fox whose den with 6 baby foxes is just two houses away from us, and apparently a snake. We didn't see the snake but we saw the large skin it left behind. You'd never know we live in the city.

Here are a few more pictures of the turtle and the boys.

4 Months Old

2009-05-31T01:05:00.004-04:00

The babies turned 4 months old on Tuesday. Here are some pictures of them. We got a lot of cute ones and I had a hard time picking my favorite. So I made a slide show with all of them so you could pick yours.

As you can see they are happy, healthy babies. They are very smiley. Kylie seems to already be a flirt and smiles at anyone that will give her attention. Several people at church think she is the cutest little thing they've ever seen. Good thing she has so many brothers!

Rubber Ducky

2009-05-25T17:19:00.001-04:00

People always want to know who each baby looks like the most. Well, we have decided that Philip looks most like . . . . . the Rubber Ducky!! What do you think?

Another Mega-Post!

2009-05-21T02:00:00.003-04:00

Well, it's time for another "mega-post." I have desires to post more often but it just doesn't seem to happen. Too much going on around here! :) I have been working on trying to get this post done for awhile and just haven't managed to get it done. When I talked to my Dad on the phone today he told me in a round-about way that I really needed to post some new pictures. So I thought I better be a good daughter and get it done. That's why it's almost 2:00 in the morning and I am on the computer instead of sleeping. (Man--the babies are even asleep!!) So anyways, I hope you all enjoy it! As always I will start with the most recent stuff and move backwards.

Today:

These pictures of the boys were taken in my backyard today. It's tradition that we take pictures like this every spring. Amazingly enough they can all three still fit in there. They don't usually ride around that way though. Timothy is learning to drive this year.

3 months old:

Here are the babies when they were 3 months old (sorry, bad framing-- I almost cut Kylie out of the picture):

They are really smiley so I was trying really hard to get their smiles. Philip cooperated really well. Here are some cute ones of him:

Kylie didn't cooperate as well. She didn't want to smile and then when she did the moment I caught on film just looks like an open mouth rather than a smile. Better luck next time!

They had their check-ups on May 6th. They are doing very well. The doctor didn't even take the time to adjust their growth charts for pre-maturity. They are growing so well he didn't need to. Here are their stats:

Kylie--

Weight: 9 pounds, 3rd %tile

Length: 22 inches, 10th %tile

Philip--

Weight: 15 pounds, 90th %tile

Lenght: 25 1/2 inches, 95th %tile

So, as you can see, Philip is still much larger than Kylie but even she is much bigger than she used to be. She is finally starting to outgrow her newborn clothes and move into the 0-3 month size. Philip on the other hand is beginning to wear some 3-6 months clothes.

Here are some more recent pictures of them:
This one was on 4/9 (Yes, Suzie this one is just for you!!):

These ones were on 4/12 (Holbrooks, these ones are for you!):

This one was on 5/3. These are their matching church outfits. I took these when we got home from church. Kylie was so ready to be done and Philip was just waking up. So they weren't being photogenic but I just had to get them in their matching clothes.

These ones were on 5/9. Once again I was trying to get their smiles.
Finally, two smiles at the same time-- too bad Kylie wasn't looking at the camera!

Flowers:

Well we tried to go see the cherry blossoms at the Cherry Blossom Festival but being the naive newcomers that we are we didn't realize that you can't really just drive in and see them. We had two hours and we thought we'd drive over and drive by and just see them real quick and come home. NOT! The traffic was so bad that we got to the National Mall drove around one end-- the end opposite the blossoms, and then came straight home and we barely made it in our alloted two hour time slot. There were probably as many people there as blossoms. Next year we will figure out how to take the metro and give ourselves more than two hours. I was sad to have not seen the flowers but several houses in our neighborhood had cherry blossoms so we did get to see some.

We don't have a cherry tree but we do have a Dogwood tree in our front yard. It bloomed with beautiful pink blossoms. Then we had more flowers around our house bloom. For awhile our house was very pretty. I love flowers!

Here is our Dogwood Tree. By the time we took the picture the blooms were already starting to fall off. It was much more filled than this.

More flowers.

Our house from the street:

Science Fair:

Brian participated in the science fair at his school. He really likes science. His experiment was titled, "Which diapers are the most absorbent?" I thought that was great for our house. :) We tested four brands of diapers to see which ones were the most absorbent. The ones we tested were: Huggies, Pampers, Luvs, and Parents Choice. It was a fairly close contest but Luvs won.

Brian had fun with it. He got a special certificate for participating that said "Excellent!" on it. He is pretty proud of it.

Happy Birthday Andrew!!

Andrew turned 5 in April. We can't believe he is getting so old. He will start Kindergarten this fall. He can hardly wait.

He had a fun birthday. He was a little worried because he knew we hadn't been to the store so he was wondering about his presents. When he asked me about it I told him we were going to go shopping in the toy room. So I told him to go to the toy room and make a pile of everything he wanted and then we would wrap it up and give it to him. He did not think that sounded like a good idea. Luckily Derek got some time on the day of his birthday and made it to the store so he got some real presents.

He wanted a dinosaur birthday cake. I was planning on just sticking some of his dinosaur toys on it and calling it good. He was going to be happy with that too. He even had all the ones picked out that he wanted on it. But then we did some internet searching before we started and found just the one he wanted. It didn't look too terribly hard and I thought we could manage it so this is what we ended up with:

Andrew did the spots while I did the spikes, toes, and eyes. He was very proud of it. It tasted very good too!

Here is a slide show of him opening his presents:

Easter:

For Easter this year we decided to focus more on Christ and the Resurrection. So we spent the whole week before Easter celebrating. We started the Sunday before Easter and then did something every night up until Easter to represent what Jesus did during the last week of his life here on earth. Some of our activities included making palm leaves on Palm Sunday, drawing pictures of temples on the day He cleansed the temple, and eating a dinner with food from Jesus's time on the night of the Passover. It was lots of fun and really added to the holiday for all of us. We plan on doing the same thing next year and making it a tradition.

Easter Eggs:

We had lots of fun coloring our Easter Eggs. Timothy must like vinegar. He enjoyed sticking his hand in the dyes and then licking them off. Good thing it's non-toxic.

Easter Morning:

The kids had lots of fun finding all the plastic eggs that the Easter Bunny hid. The Easter Bunny decided we had enough candy so he filled our eggs with money. Mostly pennies but there were a few silver coins too. Strangely enough, Timothy got the least amount of eggs but the most money since he just happened to get almost all dimes.

Easter Outfits:
Here are the babies in their Easter Outfits. Kylie got a dress with Easter bunnies on it at one of my baby showers so she had to wear it. Philip got to wear a yellow tie so he thought (well it's probably more accurate to say "I thought") he was matching her. I took these after church and so they were tired and hungry and not being photogenic. Ah well! You'd think I'd learn that after church is just not a great time to take photos. Someday!

And lastly, Kylie's famous "No more picures!" pose:

Orange Bow:
When I was younger I hated the color orange, mostly because it was the color of vomit. Over the years my abhorance to it has declined and I don't mind it quite as much. It's not my first choice but I don't absolutely hate it. But my family will never let my hate for it go and still love to tease me with it. My Mom gave me some ribbon to make bows for Kylie's hair. She included some orange ribbon and teasingly told me I had to use it. Well, I did!! So these pictures are special for my Mom, all my sisters, and to Aunt Jerrie and her family. Derek thought it was cute but when he first saw it he asked "What's up with Kylie's 'Rambo band'?" :) So here's our little "Rambo Baby."

Random Photos:
Here's some cute photos that just didn't fit anywhere else but I thought would be fun to see.

Timothy trying to calm Kylie when she was crying:

All the boys had to check out the babies new toy:

Brian and his babies:

Brian reading to Philip. Philip really like it:

Philip fell asleep in my chair. The TV was one so it actually looked like he fell asleep while watching TV:

Timothy:

A post just wouldn't be complete without some pictures of Timothy getting into "mystery trouble." So here he is when I found him in the top of his closet:

Baby Blessings

2009-04-02T17:48:00.011-04:00

We were able to have the babies blessed on Sunday. (An L.D.S. Baby Blessing is kind of like a Christening. The babies are given their names and then they receive a special blessing by a priesthood holder. In our case the priesthood holder was Derek.) It was so special!!

The babies looked so beautiful in their white outfits. We took tons of pictures but Kylie was not feeling very photogenic and so she is crying in almost all of them.

Here they are together:

Here are some close-ups of Kylie:

Well she's not crying but now she has a "binki-face:"

Her hand makes it look like she's saying, "No more pictures!":

Asleep at last! All that crying must be tiring:

Some of the highlights from Kylies blessing are:

She was blessed that she will have an ablility to love everyone and will be able to see them as Heavenly Father's children. She will be a help to her brothers. She will be an example to others and because of that example people will want to know her and have the desire to learn more about the gospel. She will have a sharp mind and be able to discern and detect the things of our Heavenly Father. She will raise a righteous family and her posterity will serve throughout eternity.

Here are some close-ups of Philip:

He was showing off his smile. His Daddy can always get him to smile! (All you photographers out there-- someone tell me what makes my pictures grainy like this. One snap they are and one snap they aren't, I hate it! Please tell me how to fix it!!)

Some highlights from Philip's blessing are:

He was blessed that he would be able to see and know the things that are in store for him. He'll be a peacemaker. He will serve and honor Heavenly Father. Service in the kingdom will come naturally to him, he will rejoice in opportunities to serve, and he will see the fruits of his labors throughout his life. He will unite with his siblings to be an example to the world. He will serve a mission and the skills and attributes he develops on his mission will serve him throughout his life.

Here are some pictures of everyone:

The kids:

The family:

Here is a long slide show of some more photos, including the efforts to get the two pictures above. By the time we were finished Derek said, "There's no love here!" But at least I love to go back and look at all the pictures. :) Hope you enjoy them.

2 Months Old

2009-04-02T17:27:00.008-04:00

Here are the babies on the day they were two months old (2/26):

Philip is a smiler and I just barely caught one of his smiles in this picture:

Here's the hats that match their outfits:

Here's some close-ups of Kylie:

Here are some close-ups of Philip:

This is one of his half smiles. He likes to smile and just scrunch up one side of his face. (After seeing Philip do it I realized the other day that Derek does it too.)

As you can see from the pictures they are both doing quite well. According to our scale here at home, as of today, fully clothed, Philip now weighs about 14 pounds and Kylie is up to about 9 pounds. Wow-- they grow so fast!!

They are pretty good babies. Philip is more mellow and is content to just lay on the bed and watch what's going on. He does love to smile and when he gets tired or is asleep he is a snuggler. Unlike her brother, Kylie would rather be held. She smiles too but you have to work harder to get them out of her. She has a happy sparkle in her eyes that attracts attention from everyone.

Finally!!

2009-03-22T02:14:00.000-04:00

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for. . . finally more pictures!!! Sorry it has taken so long to get them posted. We have been just a little busy at our house. :)

St Patrick's Day:

Here they are in their green outfits:

1 month old:

(Okay these pictures weren't taken on the day they were 1 month old, I guess they were more like 5 weeks old).

We were in for a weight check the day they were one month old. Kylie weighed 5 pounds while Philip weighed 10! He's just a little bigger than her. :)

I had just washed Kylie's hair and had left it all poking up pretending/hoping that it's curly. The poor girl, if she doesn't end up with curly hair then I have no idea how to fix it. I guess it will just be a learning experience. Hopefully one that doesn't result in too many ugly hairdos. :)

Valentine's Day Outfits:

They almost look like they are consorting in this picture. Kylie's shirt says, "Hug me, Hold me, Kiss me!" As if we needed such instructions. :)

Philip looks so cute in this picture I had to post it even though Kylie is falling over.

This one was funny so I posted it just for some laughs.

A Brother's Love:

The boys love both of the twins. They are always running to check on them and wanting to help take care of them. I can even get them to do things by saying, "When you are done doing (insert whatever they are supposed to be doing here), then you can hold one of the babies." It does the trick almost every time. :)

The primary president in our ward told me the cutest story about Andrew. (Primay is the children's organization and class at our church). The Sunday after the twins were born Derek and the boys attended church. Derek printed off a sheet of paper with some pictures of the twins for each one of the boys so they could show off "their babies." They had a lot of fun showing them off. Apparently Andrew was so excited that during a small pause he took it upon himself to just walk to the front of the room, hold up his paper, and say, "These are my babies!" So they let him show them off and then he sat back down. He was so pleased with himself. Timothy must have had lots of fun showing off his pictures too. When it was time to pick him up from his class one of the other little girls ran over and wanted to see the pictures of "his babies" one last time before he left.

Although they love both babies they really LOVE Kylie. They almost idolize her. I think if she could talk, she would be able to get them to do anything she wanted. I guess we'll see what happens in the future.

Andrew informed me shortly after they were born, just so I knew for sure, that, "Kylie is my favorite twin." Just last week one of our friends asked him if he loved the twins and he replied, "I love both of the twins, but I really LOVE Kylie."

Here is Andrew feeding Kylie a bottle when she was just a few days old. He was so excited to get to do this. He had been talking about getting to do it ever since he knew she was coming. He did a great job.

Their First Outing:

The babies finally had their first outing (other than to the doctor's office) on February 25th. We took my mom to see the Washington D.C. temple. We thought that the temple was a fitting first outing.

All bundled up and ready to go:

Story Time:

Hmm. . . maybe I need a bigger chair?!

Church:

The babies and I finally made it to church a few weeks ago. (And, yes, we even made it on time. Thank goodness for 3:00 p.m. church). They looked so cute in their Sunday clothes.

Here are some close-ups. They were being fussy so to prevent crying they had the pacifiers in their mouths right up until I snapped the picture. The result-- no crying but funny shaped mouths. :)

All of his brothers wore this same outfit on their first day of church.

Of course, as the only girls in the family, Kylie and I had to match. Besides, since Kylie and Philip didn't match, then I had to match something. :)

Comparisons:

We had some people special request to see the size of Kylie's hand compared to Derek's wedding ring. So here is a comparison. She is two weeks old in these pictures.

Here's my ring:

Here's Derek's ring:

And my favorite-- Here is a comparison of Derek and Kylie's hands:

Timothy:

Life just wouldn't be complete without Timothy to spice it up. :)

Here he is trying out the car seats while chomping down the core of a fresh pineapple-- that's his favorite part.

He has been doing a little better lately though in not getting into "mystery trouble." (Knock on wood!!!) We had pancakes the other day and he was enjoying licking the side of the bowl. Here he is getting a little carried away in his licking. Nothing like diving right in!

Okay-- well that's all I have time to post for now. I hope that was worth the long wait. :)

Two Weeks Old!

2009-02-12T23:26:00.004-05:00

Well they aren't really two weeks old anymore, more like 2 and a half, but they had their 2 week Well Baby Check today so I wanted to post their new stats. Kylie is growing but slowly. She weighed in at 4 lbs. 11 oz and 19 inches long. So she has gained 10 oz. since leaving the hospital as she was down to 4 lbs. 1 oz. when we left. Philip who never lost any since birth is up to a whopping 7 lbs. 10 oz. and is 21 inches long. All in all the doctor says they are doing well but we still need to keep an eye on Kylie to make sure she is getting enough to eat.

As for the rest of us-- we are doing pretty well too. The "cold" bug decided to visit our house though and now we all have colds. Yea!! Good thing I got my cough this week and not last week when my incision was still so sore. :) I just hope the babies don't get it.

The babies were just so cute in their outfits that I had to take and post some more pictures. Besides-- since we really never leave the house this is the only place I have to show off their cute clothes. :)

Philip:

Kylie:

Too bad I took all the pictures before I put the bow in her hair-- silly me!!

I have so many cute pictures to post I just need to find the time to do it. :) So stay tuned for more pictures.

One Week Old!

2009-02-03T20:58:00.003-05:00

Yesterday the twins were one week old. I meant to get this posted yesterday but crying babies, feedings, and diapers come first. :)

The twins love to be close together. Sometimes it's as if they can't even get close enough. When we put them down soon enough they will have inched their way together until they are touching-- usually head to head. We couldn't resist the picture below when we saw them holding hands yesterday. I think they really do love each other. :)

So, we have made it through the first week and we are all still alive. Though some of us seem to be suffering from a little sleep deprivation. :) It has been an interesting week. Our little Kylie likes to gives us scares-- it was her umbilical cord that prolapsed. When she was only about a day old she burped up and then sucked it in causing her to choke and quit breathing momentarily. Derek, who was holding her at the time, quickly ran her out the the nurses who quickly took care of her and all was well with no more problems. We have decided that the trip to/from the hospital which is about an hour away is just too much for her little body. She seems to get worn out pretty easy. After coming home she was totally worn out and that night was very listless. She couldn't even eat she was so tired. We were able to get to her eat from a bottle and that perked her right up. A few days later we had to make the trip back to the hospital for a check up-- her bilirubin levels were a little high when we left the hospital the first time. Once again she got worn out and even the doctor was a little concerned about her listlessness. By the time we got all the way home she was extremely worn out. Once again out came the bottle and after a little nap she had perked right back up again. She has been doing fine since. Derek told her no more long trip especially to the hospital. :) Philip is doing well and was already over his birth weight when we left the hospital.

I am doing well too. I get a little more energy everyday so each day is a little better. I still marvel over these two little babies that we have been blessed with. It is amazing to see them and hold them and know that they are ours.

The boys just love them too. They can't seem to get enough of them-- especially their little sister. She is the apple of their eyes. I think she will be very spoiled and well protected by them. Who could ask for anything else.