Lana Lou is ONE!

!

Lana is our girl and that is for sure. She loves to watch everyone and she loves to jabber. She will repeat a lot of what I say but in her own language. If I say "One, Two, Three" she will repeat "Uh, Uwe, E." It is so cute! The second she see a phone she comes after it.

She loves her dad and always says "Dada" the second he walks through the door. She will have him wrapped around her finger in no time.

She loves to do things she shouldn't. She will check to see if I am watching her and then take off for the bathroom (she loves toilets). When she gets close to the bathroom she will check to make sure I see her and then she will crawl as fast as she can to the toilet. When she goes for the stairs she will be quiet getting to the stairs but just before she heads up she will laugh an evil/hahaha laugh and take off up. She just loves the attention she gets when she does things she knows she shouldn't.

She puts everything in her mouth and I mean everything. It grosses me out. She has had dog food, dirt, and the worst she almost put a blood filled tick in her mouth (Mom caught her before this happened).

She loves to torture Drew and will grab his helmet when she gets mad at him or wants to stop him from doing something. She can also con Drew out of toys. She will have a toy and Drew will steal it, she will then go get another toy and Drew will come get that one and leave the first behind, she will then go back to the first toy with a smile on her face. She got the real toy she wanted.

She loves to lay on me when she is tired. She will crawl over and lay her head down on my lap. It is so cute. She is a mama's girl. She does not like to go with others which is a challenge sometimes but it also makes me feel wanted and loved.

She loves water and she can whistle. She has no interest in walking but can balance if we trick her into standing by herself. She is a tippy-toer when she stands or while walking. She has a dramatic scream when she gets mad and has the cutest laugh. Taylor loves and adores her and she loves Taylor. He can always get her laughing no matter what. We love you Lana..

Gramercy Street Festival

We needed to get out of town and decided to head to NYC for a street festival. We found parking for $11 for 10 hours (that is a great deal) and it wasn't far from the festival. There were a lot of booths selling hats, sunglasses, ethnic food, scarves, purses, ethnic decor, herbs, breads, etc. We had a lot of fun just walking up and down Broadway, watching people and having some treats.

One of our favorite things about the festival was when a lady came up to us and asked where we bought Drew's helmet. She thought it looked like a cool fashion statement and wanted to jump on it. When I told her it came from the doctor she was a little embarrassed and walked away. But she didn't leave without getting Drew on film in his stylin' hat (helmet) she wanted to make sure to get one for her little boy. You go lady! We had a good laugh about that.

Taylor's favorite part was the park at Union Square and the ice cream from Mr. Softie. Oh he also loved the water fountain we stopped at so mommy could feed the twins. The lion waterfall was pretty cool but I was pretty sure many people and urinated all over it. It stunck. Welcome to NYC! One more thing-I forgot him and daddy road the Subway while mommy walked around. Taylor really wanted to ride the train so they went down for a ride, I wasn't so sure I wanted to take the twins, and the stroller, to much hassle. I didn't mind just walking around downtown NY, there is so much to see.

Twins-the good and bad!

I haven't talked much about the twins as far as the craziness of having two babies at once so I thought I would post for all to read and for me to remember.

When people found out I was having twins the comments where either "YEAH" or "You poor thing." Everyone talked about how hard it would be, etc, etc, etc... No one talked about how great it was. When the twins arrived things seemed to go smoothly until I realized I don't remember the first month because it was such of blur of feeding and changing diapers and putting to sleep. I did get out (I have a very good husband that helps with that) and I had a lot of support of family and friends. But I didn't take many pictures or video tape because I was always stressed about taking care of a child.

I laugh as I look back at my middle of the night feeding (I tried my best to not wake Dave). Of course I had to feed them at the same time so I would pick one up put them on the footstool of my chair, reach over and grab the other while I made sure the first didn't fall off the footstool. Then I would sit in the chair holding one and get the feeding pillow situated while still making sure number one was still on footstool. I would then get both babies on pillow, feed them, and then start to carefully put them back. One went to the footstool, I held the other while taking off pillow. I would then stand put the one I was holding back in the crib, still making sure the one on the footstool was okay. Then pick up the one on footstool and take them to changing table and change them, usually baby in crib is crying the whole time. Finish with first diaper change and put that baby in crib. Pick up other baby and do diaper change. Then go over rap up baby in blanket and sing it a song to calm them back to sleep. Lay that baby down and rap up the other crying baby and sing a song to calm them back to sleep. Then quietly walk out the door, crossing my fingers the would go to sleep. What a circus! I honestly do not know how mothers of triples, quadruples, etc do it.

The worst part about having two babies at once is when they cry you can not comfort both and that was so difficult to me. I hated leaving one behind, when I knew they needed to be loved and held just as much as the other. I hated deciding on who needed to be held first and who had to stay behind and cry. On the other side of hating it, it has taught me to tolerate crying (it is sad but most of the time it doesn't bother me when they cry, well unless it is a serious cry, there is a difference) which has in return helped the twins learn to soothe themselves or work out the problem.

The fun part is they always have someone to play with, to watch, to tease, to laugh at and to just be around. They have so much fun together and I love to watch them. Drew is the dominant one and will take everything from Lana and crawl over top of her. He is a boy through and through. He loves trucks, wheels, balls, and putting things together and taking them apart. He loves food and loves to spit and drool. Lana is definitely a girl because he loves to talk, to watch other people and read books. She has finally decided she can stand up to Drew and not let go of her toys when he tries to steal them which makes Drew so mad. Their personalities are so different and it is fun to watch them grow up together.

We are so close to being out of a very difficult stage of life with the twins. I can not wait for them to walk. They are getting so heavy and my back has been bothering me from carrying them both around the house, up and down stairs and in and out of the car. Drew is really thinking about walking, Lana doesn't have much of an interest and is a tippy toer. I just can not wait because they are just so hard to lug around.

There are so many other things to tell but that will end it for today. I just have to say one last thing. As difficult as it may be sometimes it is all worth it and I do not think it is as bad as others said it would be. It has drastically changed our life but I wouldn't want it any other way.

Lana is awake--got to go!

Easter

While everyone in Utah enjoyed the Snow we enjoyed beautiful sunny weather on the East Coast. The Easter Bunny left the baskets outside the kids door and then eggs hidden all over the house. Taylor loved looking for them and the twins did not even care. I tried helping them pick up an egg but they had no interest. Oh well!

Grandma and Grandpa Bramhall then had a Easter egg hunt in the living room and the kids had a great time finding money in the eggs and some great candy. Taylor had so much candy he didn't know what to do with it.

This picture captured the brother/sister relationship that has blossomed. Taylor is Lana's protector from everything and everyone, he loves her so much.

This is our smiley wiley. He always has a smile on and he can always make us smile whenever we are down.

What cute kids!

G&G Bramhall gave the kids some new Easter outfits (see pictures above) and G&G Draper gave them some new Easter books. Lana loves books! Thanks!!!

Taylor is 3!

Taylor is growing up so quick and on April 3rd he turned 3! We decided because it was Easter, Conference weekend, and at the last minute Uncle Casey flew from Utah for a interview at Temple, in Philadelphia, we would go down to New Jersey and spend the birthday there.

Lightening McQueen was the theme for the year. Taylor absolutely loves the Cars movie. We have to watch it all the time and race around the home. Taylor is always McQueen and I am Chick Hicks and Dad is The King.

For the party the two things that he wanted to do was eat pizza and have a pinata (I guess our friend Chris had a pinata at his birthday party and Taylor thinks that is what you do). We added a few other games like "Duck, Duck, Goose" and "Red Light, Green Light." Oh yeah, the cake, he wanted a white cake with strawberries inside. Me being crazy and trying not to spend money decides we can make it. Well it turned out great but my husband was not happy about it because I made him do the decorating. He is the artist in the family. Sorry honey it was an amazing cake.

The pinata hitting was hilarious. No one could break Lightening McQueen. Each one of the kids hit him at least 20 times. Taylor could hardly swing anymore by the end. Finally we decided the big boys needed to take a turn. Dave hit it once and then Casey took the last hit. The candy came flying. Unfortunately when he hit candy over 100 times it breaks. The candy was all broken up into tiny shards of candy it was all over, what a mess. The kids did not care though, they picked it up and ate it.

Then we opened presents. Taylor got some great things, Lightening McQueen ball, beach towel, kite, Chick Hicks, a picnic table, Diego bubbles, Diego underoos, sunglasses, the "Bolt" movie, a golf game, a transformer, a pig shed for his train set, and a trampoline from us. Thanks everyone for the gifts. Taylor I hope you had a wonderful day.

Now that Taylor is 3 he only wears underwear, even to bed, he has his own chores and he is a big helper to mom. The 3's have brought along the serious tantrums which has spun me for loop but we are working through them. Taylor is such a sweetheart overall and he is a big helper. He loves to cuddle and hear stories from mom and dad. He loves to race around the house and play hide and go seek. He is great at building towers and working outside with dad. We love him very much.

Summary

I don't even know where to begin with life in Connecticut so I thought about doing a summary. I have been so bad about taking pictures that I don't have many to post. I am trying to get much better at that.

We moved into out home in New Milford, CT during the middle of January. I knew my parents were going to fly out here to help move us in and I can not tell you how excited I was to have them come. I was pretty worried about all it takes to move in and not be able to help much because of the children. To my surprise (with a little suspicion) my 4 sisters came to. It was a party! They arrived late Thursday night, we signed papers Friday morning and cleaned that afternoon. Saturday the movers showed up and brought everything in and my family unloaded boxes and put everything away, well almost everything. That night we went to the mall to H&M and dinner in Danbury. The next morning we went to our ward, Southbury, and then off to New York City. Most of my sisters had never been there and I didn't want them to fly out here and not have the opportunity. In the rain we saw the Statue of Liberty, some of Wall Street and Canal Street.

I have the best family. After they left I just could not believe how much had been done and how blessed I was to have such wonderful people that support me. Thank you so much, you will never know how much it meant to me. I need to also thank Dave's family. Dave's parents are really been there to help us with everything and help Taylor have fun and get out of the house. They have spent many hours driving back and forth. Thanks.

We started settling in to life in Connecticut. It is amazing how long it takes to get anything done with children. We had to get in drivers licenses so on a Saturday we loaded up and went in with all the kids. We were there for 3 hours! What fun!

A few things we have learned since we have been here:
*There is a never ending supply of ladybugs in Connecticut and they all like to come in and hang out. The twins have eaten a dozen or so.
*My favorite-there are a lot of ticks. I was horrified when we saw our first tick, inbedded in Drew's back. After that we have found 5, full of blood on Boogie, 1 on Dre, and one more on Drew's head. Oh yeah, Lana tried to eat one. That story goes: I saw Lana picking up something off the ground and thought I should go see what that is, it looked like a blueberry. By the time I got there she had squished it and there was a dark color on her hands. I was so grossed out when I realized it was a tick that was full of dog blood. NASTY!!!! Luckily it had not reached her mouth yet. Also those are only the ticks that we have found that attached themselves to someone or a dog. We have seen at least 10-15 more on our clothes.
*Our driveway is steep. Snow and ice make it hard to get up. Dave had to park his car at the bottom of the driveway a few times.

*Church is 25 minutes away. I can't just come home if I need to, you know for a diaper blowout or something like that. I have to pack a lot more when I leave.
*Traffic driving to New Jersey is ridiculous. Thanks to New York City.
*It is gorgeous here. I feel like I live in the mountains. We have a stream in our yard and so many trees. The homes are all different and many were built in the 1700s and 1800s.
*We have good sledding hills in our yard.

It is very different here and I am still trying to find my place but I am surrounded by 3 wonderful children, and an amazing husband that does a great job finding things for us to do. I know that right now I don't love this place but I love being with my family and we will grow to love it here one day at a time.

I am sure there is much more but I will end here. I will do more posts. One of Taylor's birthday, he is 3, one about twins and how great and trying they are, and one of Easter and maybe a few more.

Internet

After a long month and a half of talking with AT&T on the phone, I finally have internet. Yeeha!!! I have missed all of your internet selves and your blogs.

I have a lot to catch you up on but not today. I have a primary activity to prepare for. I am the second counselor in the primary presidency in our ward. Nothing like jumping right in and being busy. Love it!