Twins RUN in Our Family

My sister Cheryl and her family have been here for a few days on their way back from Maccau, China. It was a lot of fun to have them visit!! Our kids had a BLAST together!! Cheryl had twin girls (Kate & Kyrsten) and then my other sister Jean has twin boys in college (Adam & Aaron). Derek took a week off for us to spend time with Cheryl's family and then for us to go to the Palmyra pageant. Well, I had to ruin it all and got a crazy sickness with a rash and all. Sorry, no pictures! :)(The initial test showed it was Lyme disease, but then another test ruled that out.) So we will try to make it to the pageant again next weekend. And I think we're still going to Niagra Falls, too.

Our BEST Family Picture EVER

Dallin & Julie took our BEST family picture yet! :) It cracks me up because Stewart (on Derek's lap) looks proud to be a part of our craziness and Spencer (on my lap) looks scared to be in our fam! :) Disclaimer: Emma dressed herself and if I had known Stewart didn't have shorts on, I would've put some on.

Dallin & Julie

Dallin (Derek's brother)& Julie spent a few days with us and had some New York fun. It was so great to have them here. The kids loved it, too.

Father's Day

Derek is a wonderful father and husband! I don't know how he does it!! He's in the middle of residency, dad to six kids 7 and under, puts up with me, just called to be Elders Quorum Pres in our church. He's a good guy to say the least. His 2nd year in residency ends July 1st--YEAH!!! This means he's done with weekend work and being on call over night!! He's backup if someone else needs help, but we can deal with that!! :)WE LOVE DADDY!! See exhibit A below!! :)

Exhibit A

Derek took the kids to a Memorial Day celebration. I had to stay home cause the babies were napping. As usual, Derek volunteered to take them by himself. It's difficult, but he always wants them to enjoy life. A week later we went to the park and flew kites--All of us. IT WAS SUCH A BLAST! But of course, I forgot the camera!

Help GRANDMA!!

I thought I was handling everything okay, but when I wasn't looking, Stewart tried to make a quick call to Grandma Whitmer and Grandma Higgins to get them to come back out here and help again. Good thing he can't use the phone yet!! Joseph is such a good big brother. It's so cute whenever he's having fun with the boys, he calls for me to take a picture. It's good cause otherwise we wouldn't have any pictures!

I Guess They Are Identical

Where did May go? Susie, right after I talked to you everything got crazy. I promised some new pics on our blog and that was...weeks ago. Here are a couple. I couldn't find the thingy to upload the pictures from our camera. Wow! Things sure are tougher now that my mom went back to her normal life in Arizona. :) School is almost out here in New York. I think this year we will finally make it to upstate New York for the Palmyra Pageant and Niagra Falls. Fun Fun! Charlie and Joshua are going to be having summer school this year and I'm going to try to sign Emma and Joseph up for some fun activities for part of that time. Looks like I'll still be doing a full load of taxi driving this summer!! I hope the twins will put up with it! :) Have a happy day!

Etc Pics

Here are a few of my favorite pics.

Picture Moments

Lots of things have happened since I last added anything to this blog, but things are kinda crazy around here. This is a fun picture, but don't you just hate it when there's a perfect Kodak moment and you run and get the camera to find the moment has passed!! A few of mine that I've missed are: Joseph, Charlie & Josh looking over a book together (everyone so invovled); the twin babies knawing on each other (Stewart leaned over to chew on Spencer's arm, so Spencer started sucking on Stewart's head!); and Emma cleaning the bathroom mirror with my make-up brush and water. :)

I Couldn't Have Said it Any Better

I have wanted to post a few times, but haven't had the time to put it together. Yesterday the twins had a little cold so Derek, (BIG Thank you to Derek) took three out of the six to Sacrament Meeting by himself, even though he was on call. Then I found this Mormon Cartoon Blog. This cartoon can be multiplied by six to define our family. Every time I went in for an ultrasound, the OB said, "I can't believe how active these guys are in the womb." (So at least we had a warning.) All I could reply to that was, "Then they will fit in with the rest of our family! :)" You should check out this cartoon blog--it's pretty hilarious.

Back Tracking--Their Blessing

This a picture from their blessing day. YES, we are as exhausted as we look! :)
Many people ask me if I ever mix up our twins. The answer is not very often. I don't think that means I'm a good or bad mom if I mix them up, I just think I'm always the one changing them into the clothes they're wearing--so I remember. When they get older Stewart's only distinguishing birthmark (tiny red spot on the top of his head) will be covered with hair, but if they try to trick me too much, I'll just tell them they better behave or I'll shave their heads!! :) Anyway, on their blessing day the fun began: we were rushing into the chapel as the bishop announced that we were going to bless our babies. SO, Derek didn't really take a good look at the baby that I handed him AND you guessed it--he blessed Stewart with Spencer's name at first. No, we didn't switch their names at that point, Derek just reblessed him. I don't know if Derek will ever stop getting teased in our ward, but don't tease him too much 'cause he's such a GREAT father!!

Story Time!

We are getting to the hard part of having 6 kids so young. Derek's mom went home after helping us for 5 weeks (Thank you!). Then the same week my mom's foot was so painful, she couldn't walk on it. She had to go into the hospital for almost 2 weeks and finally was able to come home--YEAH! We missed her! So now the reality of everything is smacking me in the face--in a good way! I've just been spoiled for so long. :) I had to put this picture up. It's not a pretty picture (don't look at the mess), but it warmed my heart when I saw my two oldest boys reading to my two youngest boys (I didn't even ask them to). Also if you look closely, the twins are actually looking at the books!! How fun! I love life AND I love babies! I am so very blessed to have my 6 babies!! :)

OUR Angels

Wow, it's been too long since I wrote on this. I just wanted to note how grateful I am for all my blessings. I didn't have any idea how I was going to make it through the first few months with my twins AND the older kids in school, yet Heavenly Father made sure I had more than enough help. My mother-in-law just went back to Arizona after helping us for the past 5 weeks. AND my mother has been here helping since the middle of October. Both of our moms were going through trials of their own, but they just kept helping. Both of them with huge families to watch after, and yet they were here taking care of us. I couldn't have done it without them!!! They are OUR angels!!