Kade and Abby Are 2

More than two years ago we had our family of four joined my the cutest twins my eyes ever did see. Last year their birthday took me totally off-guard. I have siblings with birthday's after Christmas, but in the last 7 years I haven't had to worry about anything post Christmas. Anyway, this year I was more prepared although it honestly was still a little bit last minute. I made there sign and wrapped their presents around 11:30 on New Year's Eve. We did have their presents and they were ready to go. I also decided on the meals, so everything was pretty set.

They woke up and got to open presents. They received camp chairs from the girls and bikes from Gaupo and I. The bike are big for them, but hoping by summer or end of summer it will be perfect. They actually opened a few gifts and were content to play with just those. The girls were going bananas because they wanted the twins to go downstairs to see the bikes, but we told the girls they don't want to they aren't ready. So the played with the toys from Grandma and Grandpa and their camp chairs. Then we had breakfast, which was pancakes because Kade LOVES pancakes. Then we ran to the store because the helmet I had so perfectly picked out for him in November was too small. He has a big head (96%). So, we took it back then brought them inside to see their bikes and ride them. As I said, the bikes were too big but all of us 'big' people took turn pushing them around on their bikes and they loved that. Now that it is almost March they are kind of trying to pedal, but still haven't quite gotten it, but they will.

After shopping and riding bikes we baked the cake because it needed to cool and delivered some bread to neighbors. We had lunch which was simple fare of sandwiches. Then it was nap time for the twins. I think during naps I finished making their cake. We call the cake Aunt Shara's wedding cake. I thought they would love it but they were like meh. So, I guess they get 2nd birthday tradition like everyone else of not liking their birthday cake. Oh well. We all liked it, and hopefully next year they can tell me what they want. We had pizza for dinner and then cake and then bed. It was a fun day. Really simple, but I love that on January 1st our family is together, and that makes it seem extra special.

So, the twins are two. Normally I would update all about what they could do by their birthday, but I am a couple months behind and can't remember clearly all the detail of then, so I will update you with the now.

Kade opening his gifts.

Abby in her camp chair.

Kade with his cake beater

Abby with hers.

Kade and Abby and their cake.

Kylee, Kade, Tia, and Abby.

All of us. Me, Kylee, Tia, Kade, Abby, Gaupo

Abby

Kade

Kade-Kade still has the brightest smile and the most contagious laugh. He loves to chase his sisters around, dance to good music, help me cook in the kitchen, and build with blocks. He makes some pretty creative Duplo creations, but boy does he have major issues when they break or fall over. He also loves his trucks and trains. I love hearing his car noises when they drive. I also love when he links things to make a train. He is a great brother to all of his sisters. His favorite foods are pancakes, cheese, and candy. He is kind of stuck in a rut on his speech but can say mom, dad, potty (pa-pa-pa),  cracker, fish, more, no (sound like mo), more, jacket, shoes, socks, truck, car, choo-choo, and then he makes a lot of noise for a lot of other things. I think he still gets frustrated at how little I understand, but compared to 6months ago I will take it. Kade is also getting pretty good at his scooter. He is a hard sleeper and his hair sticks up pretty crazy when he wakes up. I love that he likes to sit right next to me when we read books. He has done super good with potty training. This week we are going to try out overnight and see how that goes. We think he can do it, it just might take some mistakes first. However, he is pretty much a champ during the day. 

Kade on his bike.

Looking sharp in his Sunday Suit.

Jumping on the tramp in the snow.

His truck train.

Abby- Abby is so fun. She can be very mischievous and know it. She will play with the big girls and her brother sometimes, but is also very content to do her own thing at other times. Her favorite spot to be read a book is in my lap. Her favorite spot to look at a book is next to or on Dad. Her speech has improved a ton in the last couple of months. She says more, mom, dad, potty, cracker, fish, bear, peebud (peanut butter), cheese, done, down, slide, come, up, book, chair, Kylee (it can mean either Kylee or Tia), me, juice, milk, treat, purple, ice, toast and I feel like a lot of other things to that I can't remember right now. Anyway, she is learning, and imitating sounds all the time. She loves to push her brothers buttons still. She continually challenges us especially as she hit 2 year-old sleep regression hard core and has been up early for about the last month, month and a half. This little girl lets me do her hair, loves fancy dresses and shoes. Her navy blue socks are not hers they are Kade's and she will move them to his drawer every week. She loves to be picked up or set on the counter so she can see and be in everything. Abby is doing good with potty training. She can make it most nights, and pee almost every time, but man does she hate to poop. She will get there, but she is a fighter so it might take some time. Abby is always making sure we don't leave anyone behind. She loves her dad fiercely and is one of my only kids who will ask him for help instead of me. She is not a huge fan of chocolate and she loves her fruit snacks.

She loves her baby, camping chair, and helmet.

Abby and her bike.

This girls can and does jump all the time. 

Playing dress-up in her sisters soccer stuff.

Both these kiddos love the outside, the snow, the sunshine. They have recently discovered drawing with sidewalk chalk and love to do that. They are always looking out for each other. They are good at dividing mom and conquering. They are probably the best at catching me eating chocolate chips. They are game for almost any adventure that I want to go on. They love the park. They both smile a ton and are really a joy to have around. I honestly hoped my friend Anne would be right when she said it has been a non-stop party since she had twins (almost 42 years ago). I wont say it is always a party, but it is always busy and the joy that these two souls have brought our family is incredible. They have tested us in so many ways, but they have also shown us the importance of loving hard, playing hard, seizing the moment, that its okay to be different and the same. They have taught us to keep trying, to relax, and enjoy the ups and the downs and the all arounds. Life is wild sometimes, but I love that these two joined our crazy family.  

Me, Kade, and Abby

Gaupo helping Kade ride the skateboard.

Daddy helping Kade with the bow.

Snow play!

Family Letter For 2020

 I usually try to write a family letter for the end of the year even though I never send it out. I  think its a good way to sum up the year and where everyone is at that point in time.

2020 was quite the year for our family. We started off the year by moving to a new house. We are still in Longmont, but we bought a home that gave us more space to be together. We have gotten to know some of our neighbors and fellow church members even though it is/was a bit tricky with COVID. However, those we know are so great and we love where we are at. We enjoyed some much desired family time. We didn't travel quite as much as usual although we still made one trip to Idaho in the summer and another in October. I also travel to Arizona with the kids in the summer and we went as a family in November. We have had family visit a few times this year and those were wonderful occasions. Over the course of 2020 we have done fully online, hybrid, and 4-days on and Friday asynchronous learning for school. It has been quite the roller coaster and there were ups and downs through all the different school types. Even though it has been so crazy having the Spirit help us with our decisions brought so much peace to the turmoil of the year. As a family, we have grown closer to each other, become better at being consistent with "Come Follow Me", learned a little of our family history, and lived. 2020 wasn't a perfect year, but I feel we have been blessed through it all. Here is a little person by person update.

Gaupo-Gaupo is still working at the Longmont Library. He never really got to stay home during shut down because being an IT guy he thought it was the perfect time to run the updates he needed to and change software and stuff like that. However, he only worked about 20 hours a week for about 6 weeks. It was so great. He would go to the office and then be home to play. I could get use to that. Alas, it didn't stick forever which is really how it should be and now he works his normal 40ish hours at the library. He loves what he does and enjoys the people he works with. He currently serves as Elder's Quorum Secretary and coordinates the moves in the ward. He really likes working with those brethren. He rides his bike quite a lot, still loves computers and videos games, he always makes the kids laugh, and everyone looks forward to when he is home from work.

Adventure Girl (Me)-I am still a stay-at-home mom and couldn't be more grateful for that opportunity. I currently serve as the Girls Activity Day leader in our ward, and I actually really like it. I was honestly afraid I would hate it. However, it is really fun. I love going to the park, taking walks, biking, going to the river or other water place, and all other kind of activities. I still run for exercise and enjoyed having my kids around all summer to work out with me. 

Kylee-Kylee turned 8 this year and was baptized in March right before the world shut down. She is learning to love to read and still loves being read to. Her and her Oma read every day together. She played soccer this fall and really had a good time. Kylee loves crafting. She loves to make things out of paper. She has had quite a few challenges to overcome with school but she keeps moving along and improving. She also really enjoys music and dancing. Music is almost always on at our house if she is home.

Tia-Tia turned 7 right at the end of the year. This little girl loves school and playing with her friends there. She is trying to hard to learn to read and do math and is continually trying her best. She did swimming this fall and enjoyed it quite a lot. Back-stroke is her favorite because she doesn't have to worry about breathing. She is a great big sister to the twins. She always tries hard to make sure they are okay and have everything they could possibly need. Tia is still a mover and a goer.

Kade-Is so smiley. He thinks all of his sisters are great and doesn't want to miss out on anything. He loves to build with Duplos, play in the cuddle swing, play chase, and help me cook. He is learning to talk although most of it is still with single sounds. He loves to be outside even when it is hot or cold. He is constantly trying to keep up with the big girls and doesn't know what he would do with out Abby.

Abby- Is quite the little girl. She does things when she wants to. She is the biggest tease to her brother, but also his biggest fan. She is always looking out for him. She loves her big sisters and loves to play pretend with them. She has really grown in her speech this year and is getting pretty good. She loves her dad and isn't afraid to go ask him for anything. She is quite the little gal.

Its kind of short, but we have all grown this year in ways that are hard to write down. We sure love one another and feel blessed to be together. 2020 isn't what we would have chosen, but it has given us everything that was really important to us. Well, on to 2021.

Abby, Kylee, Tia, Kade, Me, and Jason
Photo credit: Jessica Ajeman photography

The End of 2020

 It is almost the end of January 2021 and I have yet to finish the year of 2020. I totally expected with my big girls back in school four days I week I would be able to get stuff done like I use. However, all that their 4 days are showing me is that Heavenly Father was working overtime in my life to give me time, strength, energy, patience, and abilities far beyond my own. As crazy, hard, and overwhelming as it was I was so blessed to be able to do what I did because with more time now, I don't seem to be able to accomplish that much more. It was a blessing I didn't realize I was receiving until now. I was and still am so blessed.

So, the end of 2020. December was a lot crazy. The big girls were doing all online school from Thanksgiving to Christmas break which means all that normal Christmas prep time I have to keep surprises was gone. We weren't able to do our Christmas shopping date together because the one weekend we had Abby come down with a cough--nothing else just a cough, but didn't feel like I should ask anyone. So, for the first time since we have had kids we divided up the presents we needed to get and did it separate. It worked out well, it was just different. A fun adventure that we had is when we took all the kids to Wal-Mart to do their shopping. It resulted in about 2 hours worth of shopping that included a lot of playing in the toy isle especially by Kade and Abby. It was really fun. Crazy but fun.

Now it is February 7th and I haven't finished this post. I wanted to give a play by play of Christmas and New Years, but if I don't get 2020 finished out I will miss too much of 2021.

Here we go with highlights. Christmas was a lot of work, but it was so fun. This year Oma and Papa came on Christmas Eve. We tried a couple new things this year. One was a new sweet potato dish that I think is my new favorite one. We also had broccoli salad and oatmeal fudgies which are not new dishes, but new to Christmas dinner. It was a really good dinner. I wasn't going to fuss with the table this year, but my girls were like aren't we going to set it fancy. Well, I don't have really fancy stuff, but we had them use some fancy plates from my Grandma, and the rest of us had all white dishes. Then we had some fake candles, and a light-up snowflake necklace on a red charger for the center piece. I know it doesn't sound like it, but it look really nice and way fancier than any other meal we ever do. After dinner, we gave the kids there new PJ's which weren't a surprise this year, because I let them choose the fabric for them. Then they also got new pillows. Then we set-up the projector and watched The Christ Child and sang a couple of primary Christmas songs. It was simple and perfect for that night. My parents were pretty tired so they headed to bed after we watch The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Gaupo and I stayed up a little longer, but then went to bed. It had been a long but good day.

Getting PJ's and pillows.

Watching the movie.

Christmas morning we made the big girls wait until the twins were awake and then we did stockings and Santa had brought breakfast. He thought of everyone. There were fruit pies, mini-muffins, bagels, and cinnamon bread no raisins. Oma made us Cocoa which I felt like was perfect. Sometimes I love it and sometimes I am like meh, but this year it was good and I am so glad she made a whole gallon of it. After breakfast we opened presents. It was so fun to watch the twins get into the present opening. I was a little worried we may have gone a bit overboard with presents this year, but really once it was all opened, I thought it was great. They each had there own 'big' gift. Kylee got a bow, Tia a skateboard, and Abby and Kade got scooters. Then they got a bunch of wooden tracks and some trains to share. One of my favorite parts of Christmas was when we went outside and setup some wetboard and targets and shot paintballs with Papa's slingshot. While we took turns with that there was skateboarding and some scootering and just enjoyment of perfect weather. I choose not to cook on Christmas so breakfast from Santa, and leftovers and sandwiches for lunch and dinner. It was great. I believe we watched a movie that night and then sent the kids to bed while us adults talked out the night.

Kylee, Tia, Kade, Abby and their stockings

Oma and Papa and their stockings.

Kade

Abby

Oma and Papa

Tia

Kylee

Tia

Kade and Abby

Oma, Papa, Gaupo, Kade, Kylee

Gaupo and Kylee with their bows

Kylee and her bow

After Christmas, Papa and Oma stayed until late on Sunday. The Saturday after Christmas we rode bikes to the park where we scootered, skateboarded, and played outside. We had gorgeous weather. We enjoyed being together. I can't remember specifics,  but we just played and enjoyed a day with no plans. Sunday was Church, games, and visiting. It is always kind of hard to say good-bye to Oma and Papa, but we sent them on there way. It actually turned out good because the next day it did snow here. It was so fun to have them here. Family at Christmas is fun.

Papa getting ready to follow Tia down the slide.

The week between Christmas and New Years I took a mom stay-cation. I read a book, planned simple meals, made and ate delicious treats and probably overate on treats and real food. I didn't cook, project, or help kids read. I just took a week to enjoy not having anything. It was great. New Years is pretty low key, but for maybe the first time ever Midnight came way to soon. We started off the night with mini-hotdogs and mac and cheese. Then we went and saw this house that has its light programmed to a radio station. Then we came home and used some hot chocolate bombs that a friend made me and toasted in the New Year with the twins. After we got them to bed, we played Forbidden Island with the big girls and then we had Martinelli's to toast in the New Year with them. Then Gaupo and I pulled out Fall of Rome Pandemic and learned and played that. By then, it was about 11:30 and so we made a birthday sign, wrapped presents for the twins, and blew-up balloons. By then it was time to toast in the New Year. 

Tia learned to climb the tree.

Abby

Kade

Kylee

Sledding on Skyline Hill. Tia, Kade, Abby, Kylee.

Tia and Kade getting warm after sledding.

Abby goofing in snow wear.

It brief, but sometimes that is the way it has to be. The holidays were very fun and a much needed break from school.