Fun Summer 2018

Summer break started out with crazy chore charts and trips to the park.  We were also able to go to the splash park a couple of times in Reno.

The babies were blessed at the beginning of July and we were able to have a fun time with family that weekend.  This included a trip to Tahoe as a family.

Since Josh's job allows some flexibility in where he works over the summer and since he had a research contract through the University of Utah, we decided to spend about a month playing in Idaho and Utah this Summer.  Our trip started with a fun Lewis family reunion at the Alpine retreat.  It was fun to see everyone and let the cousins all play together.  Matthias and Lizzy had a great time being the oldest cousins and being followed or chased by different cousins.

We then traveled up to Burley, Idaho to spend time with Garn family.  The kids and I also had fun playing the various board games (that Grandma Garn has kept for her grandkids) and Josh and the kids enjoyed wresting with Grandpa.  Our time in Burley also included a fun time at Harris Pond for the Keith Garn family reunion.  It was fun to spend time with our kids and with extended family.

After a fun week in Burley, we headed back to Utah and dropped Josh off at the Salt Lake Airport.  He took a work trip (with the University of Utah) to Pakistan.  The kids and I had fun chilling at Grandma Lewis' house.  We took a couple of trips down to Provo to visit with friends and a couple of trips to hang out with Aunt Rachel and her kids.

It was also during this time that Ian and Evan seemed to start to notice each other.  Such funny babies.

I'm a twin?

While Josh was still away we took a day trip up to Cokeville for the July 24th celebration.  Matthias and Lizzy loved the parade and all of the activities of the day.

We spent another week split between the Garns and the Lewises and then spent our last week of vacation down in Moab for the Val Garn family reunion.  We had the best time with all of the cousins and aunts and uncles.  We did a bunch of different activities, swam in the pool a bunch, and ate a lot of good food together.

We drove back on Aug 5--the day before school started.

Four months old

 Ian is a smiley 4 month old and has started laughing a little bit. He likes to observe the world and seems to really think about things. He's a really calm kid and will just continue to look around when his brother is screaming next to him. He will roll over at least once every other day. Some days he's on a roll (pun intended) and will roll over several times from front to back. If we help him balance he can support his own weight for a while when standing.

Ian received a name and blessing on July 1. Josh gave the blessing and Val Garn, Jared Garn, and Bishop Peterson were in the circle. In his blessing he was told that he will develop a personal relationship with his Savior. He was also told that he was blessed to come to a loving family who waited a long time for him to join us. His blessing also noted his kind and loving personality.

Evan is also a smiley 4 month old and has started laughing occasionally too. He is also pretty chill unless he needs something. Then the screaming goes from 0-60 in less than a minute. He's rolled over several times, but still seems very surprised by it. He startles fairly easily, but will smile quickly afterwards. He wants to sit up and is often doing crunches to improve his abs. He also cannot stop moving--arms, legs, and now head are constantly in motion.

Evan received a name and a blessing immediately after Ian on July 1. Josh gave the blessing and Val Garn, Jared Garn, and Bishop Peterson were in the circle. In his blessing he was told that he was blessed to come to a loving family and that he and Ian will be good friends. He was blessed to be an example for good and to understand the connections between spiritual and temporal knowledge. Finally, he was blessed to receive all of the sacred ordinances in the temple.

I sure love these little boys.

Three months old

And I've finished the fourth trimester.  We are definitely sleeping better.  Both boys are consistently sleeping 7-8 hours a night (well, at least for the last week), which has made my life better.  We're working on figuring out the rest of the schedule now that they are sleeping better.  They still both take a really good afternoon nap.

Ian has the cutest social smile.  He is generally a happy kid and really likes to try to have conversations with people.  He's holding his head up higher and higher during tummy time. He's still on oxygen, but we're hoping to test again soon and get him off of that.  At his last visit (to the pulmonologist) he was 23.25 inches and 10lbs 15oz (getting close to doubling his birth weight).

Evan also has the cutest social smile.  He was happier at the time of pictures, so his smile was more easily captured.  He really likes people paying attention to him and wiggles like crazy whenever he's awake and watching someone.  He only likes being in the swing when we're watching Doctor Who as a family.  He hasn't had another recent appointment, so we're not sure his weight and height, but he's definitely continuing to grow.

Rollan Melton Elementary School

School started for Matthias and Lizzy the day after we moved to Reno, Aug 6.  I can't believe how early school starts here.  The kids mentioned that they missed Wasatch, but they also seemed really excited to go back to school and make new friends. Over the summer Lizzy had mentioned that she was nervous about whether or not she would be able to make new friends, which is funny because she is such a friendly girl. 

We were happy to see each kids' classroom and hear that they had great teachers.  This made them a little more excited.

The kids took school pictures in the Fall.  We remembered which day was picture day this year and so they were dressed well and looked great.

Lizzy had a great first grade year.  She has become such a wonderful reader and enjoys math.  She has also enjoyed some of the different science experiments that they did in glass.  She also told me that Ms. Feller is one of her role models.

First day of school picture!

Watching the Solar Eclipse

Christmas PJ party

Presenting work for classmate critique

Dress up like your favorite book character

Crazy hair day!

Writing samples from the first and last days of school

Matthias also had a great 3rd grade year.  He's gotten really good at multiplications and has a brain for figuring out math.  His reading has also improved and he's started reading the Harry Potter series on his own.  Everyday he would tell us that his favorite thing about school was recess.

Field trip!

Science experiments

Working in groups. 

Ready for the end of year dance performance.

End of year Lemonade Stand to raise money for Buddy Benches. Tanner (one of his best friends) is in orange

At the end of the school year the students put on a multicultural dance.  The dances are very simple, but the kids have fun performing.  Lizzy's class did a Mexican based dance and Matthias' class did a dutch based dance.

The school also had a field day with some small events. 

Girls beat the boys in this relay race

Girls enjoying popsicles on field day

Matthias enjoying field day events

Lizzy's class also put on a poetry cafe, at which they performed different poems.  Lizzy performed as a villager in the 'Boy who cried Wolf' poem.  Ms. Feller also showed an end of year video.

Two months old

How did this happen?  Two months felt like forever and also no time at all.  I can't believe how quickly time is going.

Ian has done one or two smiles that look like social smiles.  We're still waiting for the consistent social smiles, though.  He's started to hold his head up better.  He's getting into more of a schedule, which consists of one longer and one shorter stretch of sleep at night, early morning awake time, two good size naps and some smaller naps throughout the day.  He's a good eater.  He's now 21.5 inches and 9lbs 4oz.

Evan has also done one or two smiles that are potentially social smiles.  He also smiles a lot in his sleep. He holds his head up really well.  He has a similar schedule to Ian, but likes to sleep after his early feeding and have a later morning awake time.  It's given me some individual time with each baby, but also means less gets done around the house.  :)  He's now 22.5 inches and 10lbs.

Parent Lunch Thursday

Most of my days are spent caring for the twins, but I want Lizzy and Matthias to feel important too.  Matthias has been reminding me all week that I could come each lunch with him at school today.  His teacher has a "Parent Luncheon" once a month and I've always been sad that I used to always work during that time and was not able to go do this.  So after feeding babies, getting ready for the day, feeding babies, and grabbing some things for lunch, I was able to go visit Matthias during his lunch time today.

He had told me that the parents usually bring things like McDonald's for these lunches.  He knows how to get what he wants, because I totally fell for it and brought him Burger King.  I didn't see any other kids with fast food.  Oops.  But it was easier than me trying to figure out something to make and bring, so I will count it as a win.

I was almost 10 minutes late to his lunch and felt really badly about that, but he was so happy when I walked in pushing the stroller with the babies.  He ran right over and gave me a hug.  The rest of his class started to gather around the stroller.  I had the covers over the car seats and quickly told the kids not to touch.  They were all really good.  Matthias was happy to open each cover and show off his brothers really briefly.

It was really fun to have lunch with my big kid.  After eating he went out to play with his friends.  I slowly followed him out to see if I could find Lizzy out there too.  Matthias was playing a tossing game with his friends.  I realized we hadn't taken a picture, so I quickly took one to document our lunch.

Once the bell rang I was able to spot Lizzy running toward her class line.  It was fun to give her a hug and she showed off her brothers to some of her friends too.

This evening, Matthias told us that during music he was sitting at one end of the semi-circle.  He said that every time his teacher would turn her back to him he would flip around and start pretending he was making out.  Then he showed us his moves.

Also, the babies were matchy-matchy today in "Mommy Loves Me" onesies.

One month old (4/14/2018)

Ian is a good sleeper and eater.  His cry has a little high pitched squeal to it.  He has two  dimples, but the one on the left cheek is more obvious.  Although he likes his binkie, he doesn't really want to have it to fall asleep.  He came home on oxygen and will stay on the oxygen for a while.  He had a little chemical burn on his left wrist in the NICU that has been healing up nicely.  He now weighs about 6 lbs 3 oz.

Evan is also a good sleeper and eater.  He can have mad little cry if I'm not helping him quick enough.  He also snorts a lot when he cries.  He loves and needs to be wrapped up tight and be sucking on his binkie to fall asleep.  He's accidentally rolled over a couple of times during tummy time.  He's still on his heart medication and we anticipate that he'll be on the medication for at least a year.  He now weighs about 6 lbs 5 oz.