Cooper and Kale, 6 week update

I can't believe our little guys are six weeks old. Here are a few things they are doing now:

*Eating more, they are like little piggies. But it's good because that means they are starting to sleep more as well.

*Growing like crazy. They are getting so big and gaining some chubs. They are out of the newborn stage. We have an appointment for them in a few weeks and I can't wait to see how much they've grown.

*Smiling. They are starting to recognize our voices a little better and will occasionally treat us to a little grin. No matter how many children you have, those smiles can't be beat. They are so sweet. Riley even claims that Cooper laughed the other night.

*Cooing and making fun baby sounds. When they are feeling especially comfortable and happy they will ooh and ahh a little.

*They both like their binkies, but it is impossible to get them to stay in their mouths. I think it is almost more trouble than it is worth.

*They are starting to have distinguishable crying. Riley is better at telling them apart than I am when they wake up at night. Kale's sometimes contains a high pitched meewing that almost sounds like a kitten. They both cry harder than any babies I've ever seen. Tempers, tempers. :)

*They are starting to get a bit fiesty. They can move their heads around really well and are super strong. They move around in their cribs and will grab onto your shirt so hard you can't get them to let go.

*They both hate getting dressed and getting in their car seats.


Some individual traits:

*Kale is a little bit more laid back and will hang out a bit more.

*Cooper will follow you everywhere with his eyes. Seems that he likes to know whats going on.

*Kale does little leg quivers when he gets scared.

*Cooper has more of a surprised look with eyebrows going up, Kale furrows his eyebrows in a more serious look.

*When I'm putting Kale to sleep he likes to have one hand grabbing the neckline of my shirt and has a tendency to fall asleep with his head hanging way off to the side.

*Cooper likes the bouncer better, Kale does better in the swing.

It is so fun to watch them grow and change. They are such cute boys!


**I thought I might add that we are blessing the boys this Sunday for anyone who would like to come.

Our Christmas

Christmas Eve my parents, Tucker, and Tamra came up. Riley's mother joined us after she got done with church. We had yummy snacky type food and did the usual Christmas Eve traditions of singing some carols and letting the kids open a gift which is always pajamas. It was a fun and relaxing evening. Before bed, Kendle left her letter and some cookies for Santa on the dining table and then sprinkled food for the reindeers all over the front lawn with Morgan's help. She was getting him excited for Santa to come.












This was a very different Christmas for us this year, due in large part to the babies. Usually Riley and I are so excited to get the kids up early, this year Kendle came in at 5:00 after Riley and I had just put the babies back to sleep. We told her to get back in bed and wait a little longer. I hated to put a damper on her excitement, but we were way too tired. I knew they would not be able to stand waiting for very long though so we got the kids up around 6:30 or so while the twins slept on. Stockings were first, and I loved watching Morgan's little face as he pulled things out one by one. The new sunglasses and tie were cool, but when he got to the bottom where the candy was, his eyes got super big and he thought he had struck gold. I think he could have stopped right there and been perfectly content. Little ones are so easy to please. I guess Santa figured the children had been good afterall this year and he left some good gifts for them. It was fun to watch their happy little faces.

As per Dodson family tradition, after opening our gifts, we jumped in the car in our pajamas and raced down to my parents house in Oregon to enjoy the rest of the Christmas festivities. Well, that's how it usually goes. This year it took us a little longer to get there. We enjoyed our stay with them and all of the delicious food and snacks my mom always makes, not to mention all of the help my parents and Tamra were with the babies. The following day my mom treated the kids and I to a movie (The Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel). It was Morgan's first movie and he LOVED it. He was so good and liked all of the music in it.

All in all we had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Break

It is Monday afternoon, the start of "Christmas Week". The month of December is passing us by faster than ever before. Wasn't it just Thanksgiving? The children are getting anxious for Santa to come, and starting to feel the crunch of trying to squeeze in all of their good deeds before it's too late. Kendle has been trying especially hard to help out around the house and with the babies and it's something I really appreciate.

This morning, after a long night of babies who had no intentions of going back to sleep, I began the process of getting the house back in order after our two early birds had been playing out in the living room and helping themselves to a bowl of cereal or two in the kitchen. Bottles, burp rags, and baby clothing adorned the family room and ottoman. I don't know how I leave the house clean at night and then wake up to a war zone every morning, but it definitely happens. Four hours later, I am finally sitting down for a (somewhat) quiet moment after tidying up, bathing and dressing Morgan and the twins, feeding the babies, throwing in a load of laundry, changing Kale's clothes again, taking Morgan to the bathroom (yep, potty training is a blast) loading and starting the dishwasher, feeding everyone lunch, putting the babies to sleep, cleaning up lunch, and eating a quick bowl of cereal - I never get to eat breakfast anymore unless it's around lunch time. I have been so busy lately, it has taken me awhile to get into the Christmas spirit and I have felt a bit Grinchy, but I put the Christmas music on this morning and I'm coming around and getting a bit more excited.

I'm wishing I had more time to do all of the fun things I enjoy this time of year like baking and taking time to shop and wrap cute gifts, but I'm also enjoying a more simplistic season without the pressures to constantly be checking off a gazillion things on my to do list. I am feeling like my load is lighter and I'm way less stressed than I was around Christmas time last year. I am feeling a bit bad (mom guilt) for Kendle and Morgan, but have some fun activities lined up to do this week. We are going to go look at Christmas lights, see the reindeer, make some Christmas cookies, watch lots of Christmas movies, read Christmas stories, do some Christmas projects, and enjoy time with our family.

We all better be good because Santa is watching................

***

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me............

.................... 2 crying babies and a partridge in a pear tree.

Can't you tell from this picture we are getting in the Christmas spirit around our place?

Happy Birthday

Today in blog land I must give a big birthday shout out to my good friend Natallie.

I first met Natallie almost four years ago when we served in the nursery together at church. Our family had just moved into the ward a few months before that and I didn't know very many people yet, so I was not too thrilled when they asked me to be the nursery leader and the opportunity to meet and get to know other ladies in the ward on Sundays would be pretty slim. But as luck would have it, Natallie was also helping out in there and we soon hit it off. I immediately recognized what a cool, witty, and fun person she was and we had quite a few good times in the year we served together. I was fortunate to have made a good friend from that experience.

Natallie is one of those people that will really go out of her way for her friends and make them feel special. She is genuinely thoughtful and is always doing cute and funny little things like this. She has a mischievous sense of humor and always has a little twinkle in her eye, ready to try to her hand at pulling one over on you at a moment's notice. Her laugh is contagious, which is not always a good thing when you are hiding to surprise a friend, or trying to be sneaky. She is also a good example of doing service and has served me time and again when I needed it. One instance was when I was called to be the primary pianist when Morgan was just a few months old. She would come and get him for me almost every Sunday and watch him while I played and Riley taught his class. I know that was not an easy thing to do. (And I still owe you a necklace Nat.) She has a very warm and caring personality and is a loyal friend.

*Here are some more fun facts about Natallie that Kristen and I came up with*:

-She has 3 super cute and sweet kids

-She loves to scare people. At night when we are in the car, she'll scream, grab your arm, and make you jump out of your seat. Some of us fall for it, and others don't!

-She has a super nice husband that loves to cook. We are all jealous of that!

-She has twin sisters.

-She can color her own hair and it looks great!

-She is crafty and very talented.

-Her house is decorated way cute.

-She is an Activity Day Leader and loves it.

-She is very stylish and always looks fabulous.

-Nat loves summer. Boating, swimming, camping and more. Oh how she'd love to have those summer days last!

-She loves to enjoy every season. Always living in the moment and not wanting anything to pass her by!

-She makes yummy cinnamon rolls.

-She loves to mow her lawn in the summer.

-She is a great example of being a good mother.

-Loves to write letters to the newspaper and is always a concerned citizen.

-She knows how to shop and score awesome deals.

-Has razor sharp wit, you have to be on your A-game to keep up with her.

-Nat loves smiley faces :) :) :) :)

-She is always making comments on all of our blogs, but she doesn't have one?? Weird, I know. (We are still trying to convince her to start one and come over to the dark side.) But we are all laughing when she speaks. Here's a look at some of her famous thoughts:


Comment on Kris's B-Day: "happy bday again. i hope your medicine is kicking in and there's something that sounds good for you to eat for your birthday dinner! i guess i won't be bringing over that mushroom and onion cake with olive sprinkles after all! :)"

Post on Sarah's Pregnancy: "hey, not knowing what's going to happen is how it's been since time began. no matter what the plan it's always subject to change.(and it usually does!:) you could be in labor right now for all i know! :) take your elephant feet for a walk through the mall like kris did and you could have babies before the weekend :)"

Comment on Sarah's Summer Vacation 2009: "my favorite part was a night on the beach w/ a fire and smores. would've been a seen from the bachelor i'm sure if the kid's weren't there...and you weren't pregnant :) riley on a clyde. now that is funny. was he wearing his plaid shorts and crocs? :) nothing like "spending time" with your daughter! :)"

4th of July 2009, Sarah's Post: "love you guys in your red white and blue next to the flag...could there be a picture that said the 4th of july any better? perhaps...if you got some of your neighbors lighting illegal fireworks in front of your house or buying all the ice at yokes cause all the beer they need to get drinkin is getting hot. never a dull moment :)"

Nan's Blog: "sorry about the dishwasher kicking the bucket, glad you have much to clean this week, hope you have fun at your ward dinner/nutcracker, and what does dvr stand for? driving very reckless?"


Happy Birthday Natallie!

Found It

Have you ever been frustrated trying to find something? I've been haunted by the song on the new U.S. Cellular commercial, the one where the couple is out making snow angels at night. Every time the commercial comes on I have to stop and listen to it. It is kind of magical. I've been scouring the internet to try and find out what it was and then finally stumbled onto it by accident. It is called "Kaliedoscope" by Sleepy Rebels. You can listen to it here. Scroll down the page until you see the blue box.

I think I want to go make some snow angels at night now!

What I'm Digging This Week

*Mollee and Jakob's waltz on SYTYCD.
It is my favorite dance of the season and total perfection. Here's the clip. I think I have watched it about twenty times now. Also, Kathryn my favorite girl dancer, made it into next week's finale. Yay!

*Glee's Season Finale.
Could quite possibly be at the top of my list for finale shows with the perfect ending. If you missed it, you can watch the full episode here commercial free.

*I'm loving some of these senior pictures my little sis took for my cousin Mitch.

*My favorite werewolf Taylor Lautner will be hosting SNL this weekend. If you didn't see him on late night with Jimmy Fallon a few weeks ago, you must watch this clip. It is hilarious.

*All the help my husband has been giving me. He did baby duty yesterday afternoon so I could do some much needed baking and then took the older two out for the night to a hockey game with some friends who had extra tickets. I know we are both exhausted and it is hard for him to go to work after being up at night with the babies. I think he gets a super dad award.

*Kendle went to the dentist yesterday and is cavity free. That is a good feeling and sure nice for a mom to hear.

Glimpses of Normalcy

Last night we took our first family outing with the twins in tow. We felt somewhat normal getting out of the house and attempting to do something all together, never mind that it was FREEZING. The u-14 soccer team that Riley coached had their end of the year team dinner at a local pizza place. It was loud and fun and great to chat with the parents and the girls. Riley really lucked out with snagging such a great talented group of girls and super nice and supportive parents. They all had lots of great things to tell me about Riley and what a great job he did coaching this year. Their team was the only 3 Rivers Soccer Team to land a league championship and we are all pretty proud. Riley had a nice little speech to say about each of the girls, along with their stats and individual accomplishments. I was really touched with the nice things he had to say about each of them and how well he could remember the details of their games and the entire season. He absolutely was cut out to be a coach and one of his best qualities is that he is FAIR. He does not do preferential treatment, but whether you are the best or the worst on the team he will give it his all to make you a better player.


So while Riley was doing his little shpeal, where was I? Oh yes, at the very back table with two car seat strapped infants, one who started crying and needed to eat. Kendle luckily was having fun sitting with the older girls, Morgan however was sitting across the table from me chowing down on a piece of pizza another parent kindly served up for him since I was basically limbless. He had an almost full glass of water sitting right in front of him, and I mentally started counting down how long it would take before he knocked it over. It took about three minutes. After that he was standing at the wall flicking the light switch on and off while Riley was speaking. Yep, got to love the feeling of watching your 2 and a half year old be naughty in public and be totally helpless to do anything about it.

After the dinner was over we packed everyone up to go home. As we got in the car and were pulling out of the parking lot, Kendle and Morgan started fighting about something and they were clear in the back where we couldn't really talk to them or break it up. Then the twins both started howling and crying. We are driving down the road and Riley glances at me and I know we are both thinking the same thing. This is our life now. For better and for worse. I think all the forces of the universe have conspired to gang up on us and make us more patient parents and individuals. We get it. We just have to laugh about it. This is our new "normal".

2 Weeks Old

I tried my hand at taking a few pictures of the twins yesterday afternoon. I'll just say it's not easy to get one baby to stay still, let alone two but they did their best to help me out.

Cooper is in the white shirt, Kale is in the blue.

We sure are in love with these little guys.

Monday, November 16th 2009 - Cooper and Kale Arrive

*The baby boys are now 2 weeks old and my lack of sleep is starting to distort my memory. I figured I had better start recording what I can about the twins birth before I lose some of the details.

After being told we couldn't come into the hospital on my scheduled induction day and dealt with that disappointment, we were ready and waiting by the phone for any new information from the hospital all weekend. Saturday and Sunday Riley and I woke up super early, showered, dressed, and ate breakfast and stared at the phone, willing it to ring. My sister-in-law who is a nurse on the birthing floor kept calling with little updates. Finally we decided it could be a long wait and so Sunday night Riley drove to my parents to pick up Kendle and Morgan so my mom wouldn't have to take another unnecessary day off of work the following day.

Early the next morning I was having a dream I was talking to my sister-in-law on the phone, when I drowsily awoke to the real phone ringing on my night stand. It was my sister-in-law telling us to eat some breakfast and come into the hospital as soon as we could. YAY! I looked at the clock - it was 6:30 am. My adrenaline started pumping trying to think of everything we needed to do. This whole pregnancy had been one big lesson in expecting the unexpected for me. My mom drove up to be with the kids and we headed out the door by 7:30.

Before we left Riley took some pictures of me in all of my 37 week pregnancy hugeness:

I will just comment that there are no shirts big enough to substantially cover a belly like this. I could never have imagined my stomach could get that big and I could still walk. It was like having my own built in coffee table - I could set my books, drinks, and remote on it. Ha.

After we arrived at the hospital and got checked in and situated in our room the doctor broke my water and the adventure began. I was already dilated about a five or six so that was great news as well. Then they had someone from the lab come up and take my blood. After she was done, she put a cotton swab on my arm and commented on what a good bleeder I was since the blood was taking a while to stop flowing. I looked at Riley and had a horrible sinking feeling in my stomach. I've had trouble with my platelets being low in the past with both births of my other children. [Basically that means if they are too low, you're blood may not be able to clot and excessive bleeding can occur. In other words, the anesthesiologist would not administer an epidural unless my levels were higher.] In Kendle's case that resulted in my not being able to have an epidural ( if you are ever about to give birth to a ten pound baby, trust me that is NOT the news you want to hear), and with Morgan they barely let me have one because I was borderline. They were also concerned if I had to have an emergency c-section that I might need a blood transfusion. So they took my blood about four more times, one of the head pathologists tested my blood himself, I talked to the anesthesiologist about five times, they were having meetings about me and I was starting to have contractions and be in some pain. They did not want to give me anything to speed up the contractions more at this point until I could receive some pain releif.

Just when I thought things were looking kind of bleak, the anesthesiologist came back in and let me know the good news that they were going to go ahead and let me have one. The process of getting it in my back was a nightmare. It took about four times, one of which he scraped my spine. To say the least - it was horrible. I do not cry easily, but for whatever reason it was not easy to get it in and just as I had finally came around to the idea of bringing these babies into the world naturally, he was able to insert it correctly and it wasn't a second too soon. After that, the relief spread through me and my contractions started speeding up on their own without anything else needed. The pain of getting that thing in was totally worth it.

A little while later my parents came to sit with us at the hospital. It was nice and relaxing and my mom kept track of my contractions from the monitor by my bed. I kept joking that I wanted to have these babies before dinner time because I was starving and my stomach kept growling. I hadn't eaten anything since 7:00 that morning. About 5:00, my parents left for a little while to go grab a quick dinner and right after they left I started feeling some strong pressure. After the nurse checked me out she let us know we were ready to rock and roll. My nurse was awesome and with the hilarious comments of Doctor A. and the help of many other staff (when I say many, I mean it looked there was a party going on in our room) they started preparing the room for the birth of our boys. As they began to set up the two different beds for the babies and turning on the heat lamps and arranging the supplies, it finally hit me that I was about to deliver TWO babies. It had not seemed real to me during the entire pregnancy, I mean I knew it in my heart, but my mind had not fully comprehended and wrapped itself around the fact that it was really going to happen - and it would be happening now.

Doctor A. asked me which names we had for each baby. He wanted to make sure that they were given the right names as they were delivered. Cooper had always been the baby that was head down and right in the position to be born first. He was ready. It did not take long and they were holding him up for me to see his little face. I couldn't believe how big he looked. Neither could everyone else in the room. He looked so healthy and good. Then it was time for Kale to make his way into the world. Doctor A. had to help move him over so he was in a better position, Cooper had been taking up most of his room. Kale, who we are now coming to think of as Mr. Laidback, came out with his little legs crossed like a frog and his eyes open looking at us like "hey, what took so long?" Again, I was amazed at how healthy and good he looked. Perfect little round head, chubby cheeks, little arms flapping around. Almost 16 pounds of pure baby love had just come from my tired body and I felt like the proudest mom alive.

Because they were twins and born a few weeks early they had to do a little more to them than most normal babies. Kale had to have his breathing jump started a bit after he was born and Cooper was having a bit of trouble with some rapid breathing as well. It felt like a really long time before they finally let me hold both of them. That is a feeling I can't even begin to describe. I looked down at the two little faces that I had been thinking and dreaming about for months and just melted. It doesn't get much better than that. This is what happiness looks like:

*Fun Fact: Doctor A. told us they were the biggest twins he has ever delivered.*

My parents were gone for half an hour and this is what they came back to:

Cooper had to be in the NICU for a day because of some rapid breathing and low blood sugar and then he was released back to our room. I am glad for that reason that we had to wait until Monday to come to the hospital. I am so thankful for all of the staff that took such good care of us while we were there. We truly live in a remarkable time with the technology and medical care we have access to.

So Monday the 16th was a good day. We arrived at the hospital by 7:50 am, and met our baby boys for the first time by 5:30 pm and 5:45 respectively. I'm so thankful for these precious little boys and for a strong body that was able to carry them safely and deliver them soundly. We have so much to be thankful for this year.