mommy time

Ian and Maya playing together.

Max and Maya thrilled to be able to jump to their heart's content.

The kids had their first time hanging out alone with out Mom or Dad. Emily watched the babies for an hour and half while I tried to get done some of the projects that I stopped working on about 12 months ago. It looks like the kiddos had a great time and didn't even realize that I was gone and I finally started to paint the back entry way.

Thanks Emily for documenting the important event!

kicking my brother

One of Maya's favorite activities is kicking, especially her brother. Now that she has gotten better at rolling she likes to use him to help propel her even further. Thankfully Max doesn't seem to mind too much and just enjoys his sister's attention.

elmo slippers

Thank you Auntie Laura for sending us these great Elmo slippers. They provide hours (in 5-10 min increments) of entertainment!

three babies in the wilderness

One of the benefits of living in southeast Texas is the warm weather. After surviving a hot and humid summer, we are now enjoying a mild fall. The weather has been in the 70s and 80s during the past couple of weeks.

Feeling brave and possibly somewhat crazy, we decided with our friends Heather and Sam Cosby, and their 6 month old baby Anna, to take a camping trip. We went camping on Friday to Stephen F Austin State Park. The park is only about a 30 min drive from our house.

Camping with babies required a lot more preparation as well as a lot more stuff. Heather, the babies, and I drove out the the campsite Friday afternoon. Between the two of us, we filled up the back of the truck with two pack and plays, air mattresses, a hammock, food, clothing, sleeping bags, extra blankets, and who knows what else we brought. This was a far cry from the single days of throwing a sleeping bag and tarp in the car and driving into the canyon.

The campsite had screened shelter with electricity.

Our babies don't have many warm clothes because there is not much need for them here in Texas. We decided that the warmest thing to put them in would be their Halloween penguin costumes. Temperatures were probably about 50 at night.

Nursing one of the penguins.

Sam, Heather, and Anna hanging out with two penguins sleeping in the hammock.

Quietly sleeping penguins.

After the guys got to the campsite, we built a fire. The raccoons at the camp were especially precocious and came climbed all over the screened shelter trying to get at our dinner. Sam and Lonnie had a good time chasing them away. Thankfully they didn't run off with any of the little ones and we managed to only lose a bag of marshmellows from the back of the truck. Max loved riding in the baby bjorn and helping his dad start the fire. He eventually wore himself out and fell asleep while hanging from Lonnie's chest. He looked like a puppet. Maya seemed content to sit in my lap and look at the fire. We put the babies well wrapped up into the pack and play to sleep for the night. Maya woke up at 1am (which she has started to do occasionally no matter where she is sleeping), and we brought the babies in to snuggle with us. It was a long night with all four of us trying to stay on the air mattress. On Saturday morning, we cooked breakfast and then headed home.

cooking with mom

Last Saturday, Lonnie and I tried to get some yard work done while the kids hung out in the hammock. When we had done this in the past, the kids seemed to really enjoy just hanging out and relaxing. This time, Max wanted to sit up the entire time and watch his dad mow the
lawn, and Maya seemed very scared of the noisy lawn mower. So I took her inside to make some pie. It is always nice to have a good excuse to make pie.

I should have something to say here about gender roles, but I will just say that everyone loves pie and sometimes I really enjoy spending time with my kids one at a time so it was nice to have an excuse to come inside and make a pie with my little Maya.

I've decided to post some of the recipes that I make and like on a blog so that I can easily find them again when I need to figure out something to cook. I probably won't update it very often, but just use it as an occasional resource. So here you go....http://goodcookinggirl.blogspot.com

Lonnie and I bought the dress that Maya is wearing while we were in Guatemala in May of 2005. Our lives have sure changed a lot since then.

giveaway!!!- save max and maya

My dear friend and former mission companion, Darci, makes wonderful hats for children. She is starting up an Etsy store and is giving away 3 hats as a promotion. Check out her blog site and leave a comment (mention that I sent you).

I would love to have a couple of these for my little kiddos. Poor little Maya is still quite bald and Max has hair but Lonnie is always threatening to have him wear sweatbands. Save him the humiliation (or better yet my embarassment) and help cover my kids heads. While you are at it, you can order great Christmas gifts for your family.

sweet relief

Oh man...you guys just made me cry and then laugh. The babies are thrilled about the election...on that one point I am clear, they couldn't get over their excitement last night.

We all finally had a nap together. It lasted a whole two hours...whoohoo! Thankfully, Lonnie also won't be gone long. He should be back tomorrow and there is a chance he might be back very late tonight.

In related news, Max has two teeth, yup two of them. All the while we were thinking Maya was the one with teething pain. It turns out it was sympathy pain (or quite possibly something else entirely) but our little guy has two little sharp teeth sticking out from his bottom gum. Thankfully he has also been in a pretty good mood today.

no such luck

9:07 am- Maya is awake and screaming....

It is going to be a very long day.

It's been a long morning already....

1:00am- Maya is crying....I go upstairs and calm her down and put her back to sleep
2:00am- Max starts crying.....hoping to stop the 2 week long 2am wake up, I try to ignore him. I end up crying out of desperation. (Why can't I just decide to ignore it like Lonnie can?)
2:00-2:30am- I start to get out of bed several times, my head is spinning, the room feels like a roller coaster.
2:30am- Lonnie finally goes upstairs and tries to calm Max.
3:45am- Lonnie brings me upstairs and we sit on the coach and I feed Max
4:30am- Lonnie's alarm goes off and he gets up to get ready to go out of town.
5:00am- Maya wakes up and is hungry, Lonnie brings her to me and I feed her in bed.
5:15am- Lonnie puts Maya back in bed and brings Max to me, in an effort to get them on the same schedule
5:20am- Lonnie leaves for Witchita Falls
5:30am- After feeding Max I don't have the energy to take him up stairs so I keep him in bed with me....he wiggles a lot.
6:15am- Maya wakes up and is talking to herself in bed, I try to ignore her in hopes that she will go back to sleep
6:30am- Maya starts to cry so get her out of bed and bring her into the living room
6:45am- change Maya's poopie diaper
7:00am- Max starts to make noise, I bring him upstairs to play with Maya while I try to rest on the couch
7:15am- Kids are being very cute and happy together, I video tape them.
7:30am- Max smells stinky...I start to change his diaper....he wasn't quite done and he poops all over the blanket, my arm and himself.
7:45am- After cleaning Max up a bit Maya starts to get fussy, I feed her and put her to bed
8:00am- I go down stairs and take a shower and bring Max in for a rinse off.
8:05am- Maya is crying in bed, I sooth her and put her in a darker room.
8:10am- Max has another messy diaper (not quite as much this time thankfully)
8:15am- I feed Max and put him to bed, hopefully he will sleep
8:30am- I am in my room, the house is quite.....I am writing this down in an effort to not go crazy.
8:42am- I'm going to try and sleep, wish me luck.

penguinos at the library halloween party