Two Boys Turning Two. . .

. . .have two parties, two cakes and two chances to be with the people they love!

The twins turned two on March 25, 2011. We had a party that night with some neighborhood friends and some family at Carl's Jr in Provo.





My Visiting Teacher came with 3 of her kids. She has a boy the twins age and two girls that just love playing with the twins. Our neighbors, from down the street, came as well with their three boys. They have been really good friends to us!

The theme of the party was Diney/Pixar's "Up" and "Cars". Big H likes balloons and Little H likes cars, hence the choice in themes. For party favors we gave away Hot Wheels tied to balloons-- my mom's idea. All night long Big H kept asking for the balloons and Little H kept asking for the cars.



Here they are opening some presents.



After the party died down we headed back to the house for a "Happy Birthday" song and some cake and ice cream.




We couldn't find any anything that was "Up" themed so I made some decorations for the house. "Cars" decorations are easy to come by, but I just went ahead and made those too.






What a fun day we had! Thanks everyone for the gifts and the support!




The next week we headed down to Toquerville to enjoy a fun party with Craig's family.

We decided to move the party to the park because of the nice weather. It was windy but fun.






The boys enjoyed yet another cake-- as did all the guests-- and another "Happy Birthday" song.

Due to the windy weather we returned to Craig's parents house to open the presents.



Baby M enjoyed playing with the remnants of the boys presents.




We also made a fleece quilt for the boys for this party. The plan was to be working on it at the party, but that didn't happen because I failed to prepare everything ahead of time. But thank you to those who contributed fleece. I'll put a pic up of the quilts when we're all finished. They are looking really cute, and the boys love them so far. Thanks for the presents and support too! We love you guys!

I also want to share a small story about the cakes.

So I made these peanut butter bars, and while I was making them Big H kept stealing tastes of the dough for the crust. The boys both loved them after they were completed as well, so we decided that would be their birthday cake. Well then I made another cake dessert, and that got the boys attention too. They would actually cry when I put this dessert away because they wanted more. So began the dilemma of which cake to make. Well than an opportunity arose for us to make some repairs on Craig's car, but his car had to be down South in order for us to do it. Well than came the idea to celebrate the boys birthday down there as well. After all, the timing worked out and I thought it would be fun to celebrate a birthday with Craig's family. Viola! Now I would be able to make both cakes. One for up here and one for down there. And the boys thoroughly enjoyed both just as I planned. If you want the recipe's for the cakes just click on "cake" above.

The Talented Mr. Big H

We've actually been social the last few months. We invited Craig's cousin Mikyla over for dinner, and a fun evening with her and her boyfriend. Our little Big H was the photographer for the evening. He captured some videos as well but those have since been lost.



We've also had some neighbors over for dinner. These neighbors are some of the most awesome people I know. I don't think Big H was allowed the camera that evening so we don't have any candid shots, with heads and hands cut off, to remember it by.

Big H loves mega blocks! He's great at building things with them too. He was so proud when he built this he sought me out just to show me. It struck one of my motherly heart strings just so. I had to find a way to capture the moment and make him feel like he was extra special! It was one of those moments I wish could have lasted forever. A picture just doesn't seem to do justice.



Here we get a taste of the Stratton boys acrobatics. Look at those amazing and daring jumps from the coffee table to the couch. I had no idea they could jump so well.



It's strange how you try to teach them something for months and it just doesn't seem to get absorbed. And then, all of the sudden, you wake up one morning and all that info, you thought they didn't retain, comes out of some sort of locked box in their mind. When this happens I always find myself saying, "I didn't know you could do that!"

You With Those Sad Eyes

The twins were sick recently-- I'm sure the baby was too, but it just wasn't as obvious with him. We spent a night up with them changing sheets and cleaning up throw up. I thought they were all better the next day, but then Little H woke up with swollen swollen eyes. The swelling had gone down a little by the time I took this photo. He seriously had the saddest eyes I had ever seen.

Do you see this happy guy? Yes its true this is my grumpy, colicky baby.



You could hardly recognize him these days. Well at least I hardly recognize him. Most other people hardly got a hint of his fussiness. We still have to deal with the acid reflux. And now we have a constipation issue, but we're getting it under control. At first I thought it was something he was eating. But then I decided, after several diet changes, it was probably just another lovely trait of the digestive system he was born with. So we've added prune juice to his diet. We also give him a go-gurt for dinner. He has been getting happier and happier so I think it's working. I'm hoping it works because our other option is to change to a low iron formula, as the doctor suggested. I really don't want to change his formula so lets hope he stays happy.

Our St. Patty's Day

This year I forgot to wear green. And I forgot to dress the boys in green. In fact, the only member of our family that wore green that day was Baby M, and that's because I dressed him after I realized it was a Holiday-- Craig tries to claim his green eyes count, but I disagree. Yes me, who tries to make every little Holiday fun and special, did not wear green on St. Patrick's Day. But we did have a little celebration. Do I have pictures of it? No. But I'll tell you about it.

We invited my parents over for a festive dinner of Corned Beef and Cabbage. Along with this meal we also had some corn bread, scalloped potatoes and Sugar cookies with green sprinkles-- don't tell anyone that the sprinkles were actually Christmas trees.

I never did dress in green, and I never dressed the boys in green either. But we had a fun day. Oh, and when I went places I wore flip flops with green on them. That's festive right? And the boys had green on the onesies that were under their shirts. That counts right?

Here are the only photos we have from that day. The twins asked to color and Baby M got a hold of one of the markers.




Hope you had a Happy St. Patty's Day!

What's Better Than a Day With Grandma?

A day with three Grandma's!

Last Friday I decided to take my car loving son on a trip to my mom's work. Why? Because at my mom's work there are a lot of big fun trucks to look at. But before we headed out we got a surprise visit from Grandma Darrington and Grandma Dendra!



Grandma Dendra and I were naughty. See it all started when some strangers on the street mistook Baby M for a girl-- this happens a lot with our boys. Well I've been looking at him wondering if he would make a cute girl or not-- the strangers thought he made a cute girl. So curiosity got the best of me and Grandma Dendra and I placed a bow on Baby M's head-- I've done this once with Little H and a flower and he makes a cute girl too ;)



Well Grandma Dendra and Grandma Darrington soon had to leave, so me and the boys headed to Grandma Andreason's-- my mom's-- work. As requested, she took us to see the big trucks, and boy was Little H in high heaven.





Big H was a little scared.




We always love spending the day with grandma, and spending it with three is even better!

Baby M's 6 month Celebration!

Well it was almost a month ago that our baby finally turned 6 months old. Around here we have a little celebration for their 6 month birthdays. This year my parents came, and we invited some neighbors from down the street. Craig had a gift card from KFC, so he brought home some Kentucky Fried Chicken for all of us to eat. My mom was sweet enough to bring the Eclairs, or chocolate hot dogs as Nephew K calls them.

We all had fun visiting and enjoying the food.



Then Baby M got to dig into one of the Eclairs. This kid has awesome motor skills! It amazes me how well he can self feed. He's not quite to the finger foods stage, but he does pretty good for his age.



Then Baby M opened his present. I completely forgot about it so he opened it after our friends had left. Grandma and Grandpa were still there though. He got a swim suit of his very own to use this summer, and I'm sure he'll enjoy it very much. He loves the water! Thanks to my mom for getting the swim suit.



Later that week we took a quick trip down to Southern Utah to go to a baby blessing and visit family. We decided to take Baby M's 6 month photos while we were there. After all how many opportunities do we have to take pictures down south.

Few!

I've been a lazy blogger and now I'm going to pay for it. We've just been so busy, and up to so much, that it's been hard to find the time to blog. But since we've been so busy I now have a lot of stuff to blog about. Well here goes:

Baby M turned 6 months old on March 1st. We had a little party for him. I'll post more about that later.



We celebrated my Grandma's 80th birthday by having a big party on Saturday March 5th. My Aunt Maxinne-- Great aunt actually-- came from Colorado and I was so excited to see her and have her meet Baby M. I was really sad that Craig wasn't able to be there.






On Sunday the twins and I drove down to Cedar City for our friends' baby blessing. We stayed the night in Toquerville and waited for Craig to join us, with baby M, on Monday. We were going to drive back on Monday night but we got snowed in and had to stay till Tuesday.





We're poor so I made this to take as a gift to the blessing.



Grandpa showed us the new tent that goes on top of the van. Looks like a pretty cozy place to sleep!



On Wednesday I went in to sub at work. I've been getting a lot of calls for subbing lately. It's been great! I'm excited to get a little extra income.

On Thursday I had a very unsuccessful Heritage Makers party, but a great chocolate fountain set up. Those that didn't come missed out ;)

On Friday I went into work again.

On Saturday I went to a friends baby shower. I met her way back when I worked at Tuacahn. I decided to make her some scrapbook pages as a gift, but it really didn't save much money this time around.






I was really unhappy with this page. I found these "My Little Pony" looking stickers, and I they looked like something that would go well with my friends personality. I think the page turned out ugly, but she didn't seem to mind. Hopefully she enjoys it.


Other things we've been up to:

I started walking with some ladies from the ward every other day. I've only been once actually, sad I know. On my way home that day I ran into a neighbor who told me there were some swans in the creek. I went home and grabbed my camera to take some pics. Then Craig and I took the boys to see them. Later in the week I took the twins around the neighborhood to deliver some birthday invites. The swans had come down stream little and Big H was so excited. He kept running to look at them, and then he'd repeat, "Swan, Swan," after me. It was seriously adorable!





Other than all this craziness we've just been trying plan the boys birthday and keep up with daily life.