Family time...

So, our house flooded. While we were staying at my mom's house (helping out with my dad since she was in the Philippines), a pipe broke under our sink in our upstairs bathroom and flooded the place. We had been at my mom's for a week and randomly Andy went to our house to grab some church shoes. Well, when he got to the house there was an ARS van parked in our driveway and they were trying to break in. Andy opened the garage for them and water gushed out of it like a river. To make this dumb long story shorter... we are homeless for now. They had to tear the whole place apart (floor, walls, ceiling, everything) and rebuild the entire downstairs and part of the upstairs.

SO... what does this lame story have to do with the title of this post? Well, we've been living at my mom's house for over a month now and even though it is a BEAUTIFUL home and there are great people here that we love, we never seem to get any "family time"... meaning me, Andy, and the girls. So on one particular night we decided to lock ourselves in our room (but not really because there isn't a lock on the door) :)... and enjoy each other's company! It was great. I love watching Andy with our girls. He is so cute with them and I know that he loves them so much! Every now and then I just need a peaceful, chilled out night with the 3 people that I love the most! It was just what the doctor ordered.

These are some pictures we took while we were playing with Brooklyn and Kenna that night! Oh wow, those two girls are so much fun! I love them both with all my heart... and I love their daddy even more (if that's possible). :)

PS... even though we complain on occasion about not having our own home right now, I am so grateful to my mom for letting us stay with her. I know there are times when she probably wishes that she didn't have so many room mates or so many people to clean up after, but she never complains or makes us feel unwelcome. She is amazing! I love you, mom! Thanks for all you do for us.






PS... BROOKLYN is in YELLOW & MCKENNA is in GREEN

Kissin' Cousins!

Kristin and Brandon were able to come to Utah for a short visit this past week. They also brought the newest edition to our family, Nolan! He is so adorable and so tiny! I've already forgotten how little those new babies are. Even though my babies are only 5 months old, Nolan made me baby hungry! :) Anyway, it was great to spend some time with Kristin and Brandon and of course it was awesome meeting baby Nolan. These cute pictures are our best attempt at getting a good photo with all 5 cousins together. I thought they turned out cute! Enjoy!





Mckenna, Carter, Nolan, Caden, & Brooklyn

HE'S HOME!!!

Yes, that's right folks... Elder Davis has safely returned home from 2 years of faithfully serving the Lord in the Philippines! And we couldn't be more happy to have him back. He came home on October 21st with my mom, TJ, and Whit. The rest of us cleaned mom's house thoroughly, made some cool signs, loaded up, headed to the airport, and met him there! It was hilarious trying to figure out how to successfully get everyone to the airport and then inside the airport once we got there. We had 4 able drivers, 15 people (young & old) total, and 6 different things to push inside once we got there (dad, grandma, grandpa, twin's stroller, Hayden's stroller, and all of dad's equipment). It seriously was so funny! We were quite a sight to see. We made it though and with plenty of time to spare. It was a joyous reunion. Derek looks great and is the same fun little brother that I remember from 2 years ago. He is amazing. I am so proud of him and so thankful for his example. Just having him around now makes me want to be better each day. It was awesome to have our ENTIRE family together for a week or so. We had some good times, great late night chats, and fun memories were made. I love my family with all my heart. I feel so blessed every time I think of any one of them. I wouldn't change being in a big family for anything. This is why I want to have 10 kids! Big families are the only way to go. We have so much fun together and there is so much love between us all. I am truly blessed. LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

All 6 grandkids under 1 roof = CRAZINESS!!

Mckenna's 1st bite of rice cereal...


...and she LOVES it!! I had a feeling Kenna would be a fan!


Brooklyn's 1st bite of rice cereal...


...and out it comes! It took her a few tries, but she eventually got the hang of it.


Mckenna soakin' in the water.


Elliot being a goof ball... man, I love that kid!


Elliot with his adorably dorky goggles! :)


The three amigos!


Cutest Hayden boy ever!


The gang!!


Pure Elliot... jumping into the girls' crib/refusing to have his picture taken!!


We love you Chels & Elliot (JR too... I just don't have a picture of you)! Thanks for the visit and for the good memories! See ya in January!! :)

Wow! What a fun/crazy couple of weeks it's been for our family! My mom, TJ, and Whitney all left for the Philippines on the 12th to go pick up ELDER DAVIS! Erin, Chel, and I (plus all our kids) moved into mom's house to help take care of my dad. Holy cow! We sure know how to turn a perfectly clean house into a tornado scene. It was an insane 10 days! The last thing mom said as they were leaving was, "My house better be standing at attention when we walk in here with Derek next week!" She wanted vacuum lines in the carpet and a freshly lit candle on the kitchen counter. After the first few days at the "farm" (that's what we called it), we just decided to let the messiness go and wait to really clean until the day before they were coming home. It's seriously impossible to keep a house clean with six kids under the age of six running around making messes. We did our best though. Even with all the craziness, I had a great time! It was fun being with Erin and Chelsea and their adorable boys.

It was also very rewarding helping my dad. Sometimes I forget how hard it would be to be him. He is amazing. His quality of life is going down hill by the minute, but the man still has a great attitude. It was nice to be able to spend time and talk with him. He's such a smart man. I'm always learning from his grateful attitude and patience. It's a pleasure to be able to serve him and help him with the long list of things he can't do on his own anymore. Man, I love my dad!

Anyway, here is a list of some of the fun things we did while "grandma" was away...
1. A whole lot of "Lego Batman" on the Wii... Carter & Tanner's favorite!
2. Saved the twins from getting side swiped a time or two.
3. Tried to get Elliot to eat anything besides "chiten nuggets".
4. Tried to stop Hayden from eating EVERYTHING in sight! :)
5. Hid all the cookies and candy from the crazy boys who were already off the walls.
6. Fed rice cereal to the girls for the first time! They did great!!
7. I made cinnamon rolls with a lot of help (if you can call it that) from my three cute assistants (Cart, Tan, & Elliot)... surprisingly, the rolls turned out amazing!
8. Went to a few different parks in a desperate attempt to get out of the house and let the kids run WILD! We also took the kids swimming! Mckenna got to put her feet in the water for the first time (Brooklyn stayed home with Daddy and Papa Wee).
9. Went on walks, played on the swing set, wrestled (but only when "dad" came home... a.k.a. Andy). Andy was a husband to three and a father to six for those 10 days. He was a very good sport!
10. Yanked dad's trach out a few times (on accident) while we were trying to move him. We quickly learned how to move him without any problems and got better at it every day.
11. I became a professional suctioner! Dad even said that I was almost as good as mom... that's a huge compliment!
12. Learned how to successfully brush the man's teeth without squirting him in the eye with the dumb rinsing machine.
13. Realized that when dad stares at his armpits before we put his clean shirt on him, that means he wants deodorant! Duh!
14. Cleaned the kitchen counter off and did dishes at least 6 times a day.
15. Left all the kids and dad with Andy one night so that us girls could go to the USU volleyball game! SO fun!!... even though they lost. (PS...thanks Andy)
16. HAD A CRAZY GOOD TIME BEING TOGETHER WITH FAMILY!!!

LESSON LEARNED...

VERY LONG STORY ALERT!!! Turn back now...

Never again will I try to take my two 4-month-olds to an Aggie football game!!! Oh my goodness! I never knew it could be so stressful! We had been pretty bored all week long and decided, "Hey! Let's get out of the house tonight. It's supposed to be pretty warm... let's go to the Aggie game!" The girls' first USU game! I was so excited. We loaded the girls up in their warm fleece outfits, packed blankets, bottles, binkies, formula, burp clothes, diapers, wipes, extra outfits (in case of an accident), and our sweet new Baby Bjorn (and one we borrowed from Kimber) and we were off! We were so prepared and thought we'd have a great time... think again. Of course we had to park quite a ways away (and pay $5 for it), which means we had to walk quite a ways too. After trying to figure out the borrowed baby carrier for about 10 minutes, we decided that Andy would carry Brooklyn in the Baby Bjorn and I would just carry Mckenna (a.k.a. Miss Chubs) in my arms. We got to the ticket line and waited in that for a good amount of time. They had "cash only" lines that were moving faster... but come on!!! Who carries cash these days?? We sure don't. So finally we got to the front of the line, paid $17 for my ticket (Andy still gets in free), and headed into the statium. Wow, it was packed! Thankfully our friends had saved a few seats for us. We sat just above the band and shoulder to shoulder with the people next to us. The girls did ok at first, but they quickly got hungry... so Andy filled up the bottles in the bathroom (cold water, yuck!), held the bottles in his armpits for a while to warm them up, and we tried to feed them. They didn't so much like the cold milk so they didn't eat very well. They started fussing after that and pretty much didn't stop until we got home that night. We left the game just after half time and thank goodness we did! Mckenna SCREAMED all the way back to the car and all the way home. Brooklyn joined in after a while too. I think it was a mixture of a lot of things for them. Loud noises, too many people around, cold bottles, breeze/sun in their faces, etc. Well, we've learned our lesson!!! No more Aggie games for now. Maybe when they get a little older. We'll see. All I know is that the night most definitely was NOT worth the $22 we spent! I would have much rather gone to a movie or something. The babies do much better at movies. Maybe we'll try that next time! For now all I can say is... LESSON LEARNED!

PS... the Aggies won by the way! But how would I have known who was winning with two babies to worry about?? I don't think I even watched a full play during the two quarters that we were there. Oh well! I'll be sure to let you know how our next "big adventure" goes! :)


This picture is the only one we got the entire night, despite all the stress. Surprisingly enough she's smiling. This was part of the 5 minutes that she was happy! Sorry Mckenna, we didn't get any pictures of you. You were too upset. :(

Happy Fall Y'all!

We LOVE the fall season at our house! I love when it starts to cool down outside at night and I can start wearing my long jeans and jackets. I love the holidays during this season (Halloween, Thanksgiving)! I love the colorful leaves and the smell they leave in the air. I love being in a somewhat normal routine of life. Summertime is always crazy for us, so I always love when fall comes around and we have a regular schedule and a set bedtime!

The girls finally got to wear their cute pumpkin shirts the other day. I was waiting for the first day of fall and sure enough, it came as it always does! I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful season as much as we are! HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!!!

4 Month Checkup

We went in for the girls' 4 month checkup a few days ago. I was pleased to hear that they are definitely growing (Duh... just check out the previous post) and that they are both doing well. I've never noticed it, but apparently Brooklyn constantly tilts her head to the right. The doctor gave us a few stretching exercises to do with her so that we can lengthen her right neck muscle and even it out with the left side. The poor girl hates the stretches, but if we don't do them we'll be headed to physical therapy. So we're working on it! Other than that... the babes are healthy, chubby, getting stronger, and doing awesome! We couldn't be happier!!!

4 month STATS:
Brooklyn... 13 lbs 5 oz / 24 inches
Mckenna... 14 lbs 7 oz / 24.5 inches