Babies!

Maybe instead of a family letter I'll send some pictures.

 

First picture is my favorite part of the day.

 

 

 

It's really fun to each feed our babies side by side.  A lot of dads probably don't get the opportunity to feed their babies when they just nurse.  I really like being able to feed them and have some bonding time just the four of us.

 

We also change a few diapers and sometimes just hold them.  They have both latched on nursing but still get most of their food by bottle.  Hilary is able to pump enough that they are pretty much totally off formula.

This is Lily

 

 



Here is a napping Ella

This is Dad with Ella a few days ago.

 

 Ella

 

 

This is my bed.

Lily

 

Like most newborns they lost some weight.  Lily fell to just under 4 and Ella fell to just under 4,7.  Yesterday I expected them to have gained a ton but they only gained a few grams.

We just got back from the nine o-clock feeding and they had gained lots today.  Lily gained 3 ounces and Ella gained two ounces so they are almost back to their birth weights.  Lily is 4,3 and Ella is 4,9.

 

Lily is off of her IV now.  Ella will be off it in the morning also.  They are progressing really well.  Probably have a ways to go in the NICU but things are really coming along.

 

Hilary is looking skinny again.  She happily weighs much less than me again and feeling more mobile.  We are still monitoring her blood pressure and massaging swollen feet.

 

One fun baby story was the first time I let Grandma Hart hold one of the girls.  Ella got all fussy and started crying and so she gave her back to me and Ella fell back to sleep.  That made me happy.  Not that I don't want my girls to like grandma but my whole life I've always been the one who the babies don't like and I have to return the crying baby to the parent.  It was kinda nice to have roles reversed and to be the parent.

 

For fun I tested my blood pressure today.  166 over 122.  Yep I'm pretty much dead.  I tested it again and I was in the normal range but that was pretty funny.

 

I did my first sorta interview today.  It was just a phone interview but it went really well and they liked me so I'll have a real interview in about two weeks.

Have I ever shown you where I work.  This is my cubicle.

Crafting and Updates

Now that it's summer vacation, I am enjoying lots of free time.  Brian suggested that perhaps it's time for a new blog post (it's been about 6 months since our last post).  As many of you know, our lives have changed quite drastically since December.  Here are the main updates:

• I'm pregnant!  With TWINS!!
• We are buying a new house.  This one.
• As long as things go smoothly, we'll move in at the end of July
• I finished my 7th year teaching
• Brian had a busy semester for the first part of the year
• He's taking online classes for the summer, so he gets to be home a lot more
• We're busy getting things ready for our baby girls :)

Back in November a few of my friends and I decided to have a monthly Pinterest Party.  We get together and make something we have found on Pinterest.  It's been great, and we've made some really cute things!

• November: wood block frames
• December: sock snowmen
• January: candy heart topiary
• February: etched glass
• March: no party
• April: embellished flip flops
• May: Mary Kay Satin Hands scrub imitation
• June: fridge paper organizer

Here is a picture of a few of these things:

 I need to get a larger dowel for the topiary... it's a little top-heavy.  I'm hoping to still participate in these parties, even after we move.

I've done some other crafts just for fun recently.  I made this snowman back in November to hang on our door during the winter months. 

And I've started to make a few things for our babies' room.  This is a simple piece of string art.

And my project this last weekend was this tutu bow holder.  This is another thing I found on Pinterest.

I like the way it turned out. 


I've also gotten really into buying things on a local facebook yard sale site.  I think we've been able to find some pretty good deals.  Here are some things we've purchased:

• Baby Exersaucer- $25
• Baby Bouncer Seat- $10
• 3-Piece Entertainment Center- $150
• Baby Swing- $35
• Crib- $50
• L-Shaped Cabinets- $75
• Queen Bed Frame- $5

So we've taken pictures periodically of my growing belly.  It's hard for me to remember what it was like to not have a big belly.  Here's a picture from 11 weeks, when I just had a tiny bump, and then one from this past weekend, at 25 weeks.  These babies are definitely growing!  And I still have 12 weeks or so left!!

Hilary is Famous

They were really excited about the footage they got with Hilary.

MONEY

Look!  We're rich!!!

Sorry one of the dudes is facing the wrong way.
Okay so it's not really that much money.  Probably about what we spend on some costco trips.  But there is still the little kid part of me that feels super rich having so many bills that I can't close my wallet.  In today's world of debit and credit cards I never have cash on hand. 
That's why I got all crazy when I sold one of my textbooks back and they paid me mostly in fives.

Since then Hilary has turned down all my brilliant ideas of what we can do with our money.  My first idea was for her to make me a shirt out of them.  How cool would it be to have a shirt of five dollar bills?  Next a tie.  Not quite as ambitious but still shut down.
Then inspiration came and I told Hilary she should make me a wallet out of money!! Tell me that's not genious.  She said no.

Lastly I suggested we make a little model tree out of the money because money grows on trees right?
Didn't like that idea either but I made do.

Kinda sad but these two pictures represent the new true meaning of Christmas.

By the way here is a link to the house we're putting an offer on tomorrow.

Pretty House

Green Smoothies

Do you guys know Hilary sometimes makes me smoothies made out of vegetables?

 She is a bit of an acolyte of the greensmoothiegirl.com.

It's some Mormon lady whose family transformed by eating more raw fruits and vegetables.  Hilary and I aren't the best at eating veggies but her smoothies are pretty good and extremely healthy.  The smoothies are mostly spinach.  Anyway our blender doesn't do a very good job and the lady at greensmoothies says everyone needs to get a blendtec blender which as it would happen cost four to five hundred dollars.  I'd consistently told Hilary that our kitchen is too small to accommodate such a item(I make no mention of our checkbook).  Well, yesterday being the good husband that I am, I accompanied her to a Vegas seminar the greensmoothie girl was running.  Hilary excitedly told me that they are going to give away a blendtec blender by raffle tickets at the event.  I told her that if that is the only reason we are going then we might as well not go because you are not going to be the one person who wins it.  In classic Hilary fashion she won the blendtec despite the fact that there were well over two hundred people there.  I think she only won it because I told her she wouldn't.


Well I tried my very best to be skeptical of this crazy blondie because I knew she would tell me to stop eating meet.  For the third largest healthy eating website in the country I did expect a bit more.  My favorite line was when she told us that "sugar is more addictive than cocaine as proven by no less than 2 animal studies.  Admittedly one was with my parrot and gold fish."  Okay that's not exactly what she said but it's pretty close.  She did have some good points, though.  So we often eat puke green smoothies here and if you come down we'll give you some.  I think Karen already does similar smoothies.
Anyway now we have a blender that's more expensive then most flat-screen TVs.  As far as I can tell the reason they are more expensive is that they are like other blenders but with dull blades.

 Turns out Blendtecs are kinda cool.  There's a bunch of videos that the creator of the blendtec puts out.  A few choice ones are below.

Wicked!!

I was introduced to the Wicked soundtrack in 2007.  That summer, Wicked came to Salt Lake City.  My friends and I tried to get tickets, but they sold out before we had a chance.  So for the past 5 years, I have listened to the music, piecing together the story... I had a pretty good idea what happened in the play, but I definitely didn't know the details.  I am so glad we finally were able to go see it!!  The cast was amazing.  We loved it!  Here are some pictures of our trip to the Smith Center.

Girls Camp

You may have noticed that it's been several months since we have posted on our blog.  This is totally my fault.  When I got home from Girls Camp, Brian decided that I needed to blog about it.  I agreed, but then kept putting it off.  The time has come! 

Girls Camp was amazing!  I camped with the second year girls.  I shared a tent with another leader in my ward, and a leader from the San Miguel ward.  We slept on cots, which was good since it rained several nights. 

 One of the leaders read Max Lucado's book, "You are Special."  The girls then got to put dots and stars on each other. 

I was in charge of the facials.  The girls had fun spreading this oatmeal mixture on each other.  

We went hiking on Wednesday.  Here are some pictures from our hike.

Here are the second year girls from my ward.  They are so great!

This year we celebrated 100 years of Girls Camp.  In honor of this anniversary, each level was given a different decade on which to base their skit. We got the 80's.  Thanks to some amazing hair spray and blue eye shadow, our girls looked pretty awesome.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the skit.

We had a ton of fun that week!  It was also a very spiritual experience.  The theme was "Stand Up, Lead Out."  I am very impressed with the youth in our stake.  They are such good examples.  The theme song was "Where You Stand," by Jenny Phillips.  It is inspiring listening to all the young women in our stake sing this song.