What to say about our Evie Rose...Farley as Daddy likes to call her....Crash as Uncle Robert likes to call her....Mommy's Sweet as Pie Girl.
Evie is as blonde as they come. She is so silly and so sweet, she's been known to fall while standing still, she can cross her eyes to see "2 of you", she can eat an impressive amount of breakfast sweets, she has the most endearing little giggle, she loves everything pink and unicorn and girly, she's Hazel's partner in crime, and she's her Daddy's girl.
Stealing bites from anyone they can.
Apparently they got ahold of my phone one day. I was cracking up when I found these.
Farley and The Nut!
This was after birthday shopping with Grammy.
Oh Evie Rose... Never grow up! You're just too perfectly sweet right now. We love you and loved celebrating you! Happy 4th Birthday!!!
The election, like everything else in 2020, was a complete mess and unlike anything we've ever experienced. We kind of expected as much and that's why we invited everyone over for a little election party/birthday party for our friend Danny.
A favorite memory from the election party was watching Caleb get all fidgety and realizing he needed a phone charger because he'd been checking results on his phone and it had died. :)
Danny has had some health issues this past year which means we've gotten to see him a little more than usual. Typically he heads back to Hawaii to help his brother over the winter but this year he spent it with us so we got to celebrate his birthday with him.
Danny always has an interesting story to tell and can usually be found on a tractor, out helping Ryan, or playing with Carter as he lives over at Ryan and Katie's place. Since his stay was extended this year, we've enjoyed having him with us for so many of our birthdays and other celebrations. He many not have any grandkids of his own, but he sure has a lot of "grandkids" here in Oregon that love him.
I'm not sure that we will ever get over the fact that there are TWO of them. Two is just SO different than one. Random people I meet often ask, "Do twins really feel like twice as much work?" The answer is, "YES!"
Twins are definitely twice as much work! They are also twice as much trouble, twice as much cute, twice as much mess, twice as much fun, twice as many diapers, twice as many tears, and twice as many laughs.
To say we're exhausted feels like an understatement. However, we obviously wouldn't trade it either. Twins are so unique and it really is an incredible thing to witness their bond. There is absolutely NO personal space for these two and never has been. They share literally everything, space, food, toys, mommy, everything, and it's been interesting to watch and notice as they've gotten older how much they think of and take care of each other. They know when the other one is upset and will bring a blanket or pacifier and if they're thirsty they will often go and find not one but two waters so that they can bring one back to sis.
They also really do seem to have their own language. They only say a handful of real words at this point but man when they get going it's like they really think they're saying something. At nap time they probably spend an average of 45 minutes playing together before they finally go to sleep. They throw blankets and bunnies back and forth, they bang sippy cups, they spit water, they jump, and they just laugh and laugh and laugh at each other, and when you come in to get them, if they've already been awake for a little while, they are hilarious because they just jabber and jabber. They point and tattle on each other and tell you all about their shenanigans. They think they are hilarious and when they're telling their stories they honestly are. They're still so little but they definitely love each other and I can't wait to continue to watch their bond grow.
Aubrey
Maddie
Aubrey
Maddie (L) and Aubrey (R)
Maddie
They've recently learned how to climb on chairs and it might be the end of me. They push them all around the kitchen and suddenly nothing is out of their reach!!!
We've mostly given up already on keeping them off of the chairs but we did try for a little while. With twins it's all about survival so we spin the chairs so that the backs are pressed against the table eliminating the chance of tipping them over and we draw the line at pushing them around because of the stove, etc. but standing on them at the table or counter so that they can see what the big kids are doing is fair game.
Aubrey
They've also learned how to undress themselves. Isn't that neat! So now most days they don't even get out of their pajamas. I've resigned to the fact that they have a closet full of cute clothes that are going barely going to wear because I simply don't have the energy to dress these little monsters more than once a day and I'm also not up for two babies without diapers running around my house.
I don't even know what to say about Hazel in this one. She is such a crazy little nut but the Twinnies seem to love her crazy ways!
Again this is why they are now stuck in jammies 24/7.
We're letting the girls outside just a little bit. Most of the time it isn't worth it to me because so much of our yard isn't flat and the girls end up crashing, or wet from the dogs water bowl, or finding some other form of mischief to get into, but once in awhile when Brandon is outside grilling the 10 minutes of happy baby time before one of these things happens is worth it.
They're getting so big and so is Hazel.
Maddie (L) and Aubrey (R)
I must have picked these pumpkins up off the floor at least 100 times. Decorations at this point are probably not worth my time although they did keep the girls busy for awhile most days and it only resulted in a few falls. Sooo.... the jury is still out on the pumpkin decorations.
Just NOOOOOOO!!!!!
Seriously they are a couple of goofballs. Bedtime is one of my favorite times for many reasons but one of them is that for the 15 minutes or so that Brandon and I sit up in their room with them they are just sooo happy rocking and climbing around on their chair.
They've been trying out throwing fits. I'll let you know how that goes for them :)
They're also learning to navigate the stairs on their own which is almost more than I can watch, but they seem to be figuring it out and I will be relieved when I don't have to worry about stairs anymore and when we are able to eliminate one more baby gate.
As mentioned previously twins are twice the mess and twice the laughs.
Aubrey (L) and Maddie (R)
We wish that they were twice the snuggles but unfortunately for us they are always on the go. So we just sneak them whenever we can.
Nap Time Shenanigans
Emptying their waters is apparently hilarious.
So is spitting water at each other.
And recently we've escalated to this...
Luckily they REALLY don't like the video monitor and when you talk to them on it they are quick to lay down and hide. I'm trying to use this sparingly as I'm sure it won't last but the last few weeks I have to use it a couple of times for climbing and a couple of times when it had been like an hour and a half and I knew if they didn't go to sleep soon they were going to be a couple of hot messes when I had to wake them up to go pick the big kids up from school. Every time it was the same thing, they buried their heads and went right to sleep.
Oh Twinnies!!! Sometimes we honestly wonder why God would give us two but we sure do love you and already you have changed and taught us more than you know.
Originally we had planned to trick or treat in the Kaufman's neighborhood, thus all the costumes. Amy had sent me a cute slinky dog video awhile back and I just couldn't resist. We don't always do a theme but this year it was Toy Story for us. Sadie was Jessie, Wyatt was Woodie, Cooper was Buzz Lightyear, Hazel was Bo Peep, Evie was Slotted Pig, and the Madison and Aubrey were the Slinky Dog.
Anyway, so we were pretty bummed when we found out a few days before Halloween that Grammy had been exposed to COVID and we'd all been around her which meant that we needed to cancel our plans. It was probably a good thing as we're a pretty big group and I was kind torn on if we should really be out trick or treating or not. However, we couldn't just let the costumes go to waste so we dressed up on Halloween morning and did a little socially distanced parade for Grammy and then a week or so later, once Grammy had received a negative test, we all got together again at the dairy so that we could enjoy the costumes one more time and get our yearly cousin picture.
Everything continues to be strange because of COVID and as a result this year there were no class trips to the pumpkin patch. Some pumpkin patches didn't open at all while others like Greens Bridge, here in Jefferson, were open with limited activities. I love pumpkin patches but wasn't so sure about taking our crew this year as the twins are fully mobile and just such a handful. However Brandon was willing to take them and after initially saying "No way, no how!" I decided maybe we should give it a try. I knew the bigger kids would love it and so last minute we headed to Greens Bridge.
Incase you're wondering, the twins proved to be just as difficult as I feared but we were still mostly glad we did it. I keep thinking one of these times were going to do something like this and say to each other afterwards, "Hey that wasn't so bad, they're getting easier!" This was not that day. I thought they'd kinda want to stay together in a strange place but nope! Every time we set them down they headed in 2 different directions, barely looking back, and when they did look back and saw that they were being followed they doubled their speed. All this added up to a tired Mommy and Daddy and 5 other kids who were barely being supervised on the slides. Luckily it's a pretty small family place.
The slides are always the highlight.
Dressing them alike continues to be problematic as they are so hard to tell apart. Sometimes we've got it and other times not so much. This time between hoods and not always looking straight ahead I honestly couldn't tell you for sure who is who.
We skipped carving pumpkins last year with the babies still being little. I guess I thought I'd sneak it by the big kids but they've been asking and asking this year. They were not going to miss out twice and I'm glad! They're actually getting better and better at it and it's a fun tradition that I'm glad they enjoy.
They boys really wanted to roast the seeds this year and they were really good, especially right out of the oven.
