T-ball

Spring is here, so it's time to get out of the house and have some fun. Alivia has been doing well in ballet, so t-ball sounded perfect for Aaron. But I have twins, so why not sign both of them up for t-ball. I bought them each a mitt and ball and started practicing with them right away. It was apparent that Alivia was more interested in it and also had a little more coordination than Aaron. But I must also say that they were just barely old enough to join t-ball. We only had one practice before the first game, and that didn't go very well. First off, the field is near a playground, so they just wanted to go play on the toys. They were being so shy they wouldn't even say their name and age to the other players. Instead of participating in the drills they clung to my leg or played in dirt. I tried everything to get them excited about playing, I even tried bribing, I also had to chase Baylee around, it was utterly exhausting! Practice lasted about an hour and a half, and it wasn't until the last 20 minutes that they finally decided to join in. They each took a couple turns swinging the bat, and were able to hit the ball a couple times.

First game of the season was just two days later. We were supposed to be at the field at 9am for Opening Ceremonies, only we didn't make it. Aaron refused to get dressed, told me he didn't want to go and that the uniform was itchy and kept taking it off. Again I resorted to bribery, and an hour later he was dressed and ready to go. We arrived at the field early enough to watch Alivia's besty play her game, then off to get team pictures taken. Yet another struggle, of course they didn't want to get their picture taken, and wanted to go home already. Matt was there to help out, but mainly he just kept an eye on Baylee while I did all the hard work.

Let the game (crying) begin. We were up to bat first, which helped because that's the fun part.

Alivia

Here's a video of Aaron's very first time up to bat, and Alivia's first time running in to home plate.

You should be able to click on the video after you click play to make it bigger

Alivia really got the hang of it after a while and I think she had fun, although she did tell me she wanted to go home several times. Aaron on the other hand needed lots of help from the coaches, he would just walk to each base and that's while everyone was yelling to run! Each time Aaron was up to bat I had to literally push him on to the field and only once the coach handed him the bat would he stop fighting me. The last inning in the outfield was the funniest. Alivia would run after every ball, but so would 5 other players so she didn't really have a chance of getting it, but at least she tried! Aaron just stood out there, even when a ball came right to him, he didn't even flinch. Matt actually had to go out with him, but he still ended up crying about it. Alivia's glove came off so she just walked right off the field and all the way around the fence to where I was sitting so that I could help her put it back on, even though dad was right there on the field along with 4 coaches. But she did tell me after practice that she doesn’t like talking to the coach because he's a boy, and she only likes girls.

I realize it's just the first game, so I'm hopeful thing will get better.

Pre-School Field Trip

While my sister was here visiting with her kids we decided to take a little pre-school field trip to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana.  We went on a Monday afternoon so it wasn't crowded at all.  They had lots of fun exhibits and of course the kids loved it. 

Aaron on the bed-of-nails, Alivia didn't like this at all, she started crying because she thought Aaron was getting hurt.

My kids really liked Elmo's room, they played with the magnetic Elmo outfits for quite some time.

The boys in the wind tunnel, with all that short hair you can't tell how windy it got in there.  Alivia was too scared to enter.

My twins turn 4

Today is Alivia and Aaron's 4th birthday.  Four years doesn't seem that long, but it's just amazing how much things change over that period of time.  I almost don't remember what it was like having two newborns, or two crawlers, so to jog my memory I went back through all the thousands of pictures I took over the years and decided to share some of my favorites.

This is Aaron on the ride home from the hospital, he was so small they almost didn't let us take him home on time.  He was only 4lb 8oz, but born at full term. 

You can really see the size difference in this picture. They were the same length, but Alivia was 2lbs bigger.  Aaron was so bald and wrinkly we called him Mr. Burns from the simpsons.

At about a month old Aaron started to develop a hemangioma on his forehead.  Luckily it didn't get very big, and it started to fade away at about a year, and now you can barely tell it's there.

I have tons of pictures of the twins in all of their matching outfits, mainly because it is almost impossible to get a picture of two babies looking cute at the same time.

This is defenitely one of my favorite pictures.  Their first Halloween costumes were a little too big, but just sooo cute!

This is a picture of Aaron, wearing Alivia's outfit.  Why? Well, I was too distracted watching Dr. Phil to realize I was dressing Aaron and not Alivia in the pink flowers.

Playing in the snow for the first time, at our first house in Wrightwood.

Soon after the twins first birthday we went on a big multi-state road trip.  We drove from Salt Lake City to Chicago, stopping at the Grand Tetons, Mt Rushmore, and Mall of America.





Oh how we love the beach, not so much the water, but they can play in the sand all day long.

Alivia is about 18 months in this picture and she finally had just enough hair to put in pigtails.

I have so many pictures I'd love to share, but I must get back to spending time with my birthday kids.

Twins Fourth Birthday Party

This year for the twins birthday I decided to have a party at my house.  It was a little risky because the weather is very unpredictable this time of year, but fortunately we lucked out, it was a nice and sunny day, where just one week earlier we got over a foot of snow.  It took a little work though, clearing all the leftover snow off the lawn, but the warm weather helped a lot. Now I was thinking, just a small gathering, nothing too fancy or over the top, just enough to make their birthday special.  But then I went shopping.  Now I've never been to the party store, so I had no idea how many things they have for birthday parties, it was quite overwhelming, at first, then everything I saw I wanted to have at my party. I thought no way would I have a pinata, why in the world would parents have little kids swinging sticks around other kids, but, they now have pull-string pinata's, wow what a great idea, I must have one!  My kids just love balloons, I'm sure this is a universal thing but they get really excited about the character mylar balloons, so I wanted to get them each one along with lots of the regular helium balloons to play with. I think the party turned out great, even though I spent a little more than I wanted to. It seemed as though everyone had a great time and Alivia and Aaron were very excited about it all.  My favorite part was the cake I made for Alivia.  I made a strawberry short cake, I've never made one into a whole cake before, we usually just make the angel food cake and add the strawberries and cool whip later, so I was impressed with my cake making skills!  Matt made a chocolate cake for Aaron, and decorated it with green frosting, it was cute and of course Aaron loved it.  The kids got tons of gifts and had a ball opening them all, they opened them so fast I didn't have a chance to see who brought what, but they loved everything they got so "Thank You" to everyone for the gifts and for celebrating their 4th birthday with us.



More Snow

This has not been a very snowy year, but we did get two good storms two weekends in a row.  So when we got the foot and a half on Feb 26th it built up a good sled hill in the backyard.  But first we headed out front to clear the drive way. (why is it that we don't yet have a snowblower???)

See, there I am shoveling away, while Matt takes some pictures

Baylee's favorite part about fresh snow, eating it.