They are GROWING!!

I really can't believe it, mostly because I never thought I would survive, but my boys are 4 1/2 months old!, and since they haven't been in many of the posts lately, I thought it was about time. Can you tell which one is which? To me there are a couple of things that make it obvious, but I'll let ya'll guess and then fill you in. However, this next little update should also help immensely. Luke and Zach had their 4 month check up and Luke is coming in at 17lbs. 4oz., and Zach is 15lbs. 1oz. I still can't believe that all of that growing has been solely produced by me because as of yet neither has had even a drop of formula (although they have both tasted ice cream . . . don't tell the dr.!)
Both boys are still doing great and on average I get 6 hours of solid sleep every night, which is amazing, when it use to be 2 1/2 MAX! They go down between 7:30 and 8:30, wake up to feed once and wake up in the morning between 6:30 and 7:30. Not to shabby, although I long to sleep through the whole night. The last little note here is that both boys can also roll over. Luke from his back to his belly and Zach from his belly to his back. Really, they are the cutest things ever and I love being their mom!

This is the Same Girl

To get this out of the way first, here is a picture of the kitchen table. Not to shabby for $150.

This is the reason for the post. I'm not sure if you remember, but a few months back Brooke found my wedding dress and put it on, and like every other girl, dreams of her wedding, being a princess and loves everything pink! Ya, and then she shows up with this in her hand. Although she didn't actually catch it, her friend Coby did, she did play with it. . .

love it, and want to bring it to bed with her (until I told her she couldn't) all night long! I'm just amazed that these two girls exist inside the same girl. I guess I just always thought you were either one or the other, not both. You either dressed up and played princess or you ran around with the boys and played baseball. Apparently not. I think this is just one the many times in my life that my children will amaze me and prove me wrong.

This I just had to throw in because he made such a mess!

A Day of Firsts

Yesterday was a day of firsts at our house. The first thing that happened was Ruston caught his first Salmon! We are so blessed to live about 10 minutes away from the Puyallup River where about a million salmon head up river from August through September. Ruston left at noon and was home by 3:00 with 4 very large Salmon. Now for those of you in the know, he caught pinks. Because the twins were born this year, I knew it would be almost impossible for me to get out and catch anything, so Ruston made it part of birthday present to catch a salmon. This makes my birthday the best birthday ever!

The picture above shows the largest one that Ruston came home with. In the bottom right corner you can see Brooke's hands around another one (she's next to the neighbor boy).

Here's Ruston with all four Salmon and all of the neighbor kids standing around in awe.

Another first for the day was that I have officially started running again. I did go on one run a while back, but decided I wasn't ready yet. So yesterday was my official first run after having twins. I ran 2 miles, but I'm not going to mention how long it took me to accomplish this. All I'm going to say is that I only had to walk once for about 20 yards.

The last first for the day was that we bought our first real kitchen table. For the last 8 1/2 years we have either not had one, or used the most midget table you've ever seen that we bought in college for $40. When the twins were born and we had someone with us for about 3 months and there was no room at the table, not to mention one of the chairs didn't have a back, we decided it was time to do something about our pathetic table. Unfortunately at that time, we didn't have the time to do anything about it. This weekend we had the time, and the right thing came up on craig'slist for the right price and we bought it. We now have a nice dark brown, oak table with six very solid, very nice chairs. We've officially grown up!

First Day of Preschool

Brooke and especially Josh have been so excited all summer long for preschool to start, and on Tuesday it finally did! They both go once a week and then come home with an extended learning packet for me to do with them. It is more work for me, but I enjoy the chance to sit down with them one and one. There are very few moments in my life that get to be spent with just one child and I treasure the opportunity.Josh and his Thomas the Train backpack . . . his pride and joy.

Brooke picked her outfit out all by herself. I have to admit, the girl's got style (today!).

Our Summer Adventures

This is in no particular order, so we'll start with our trip to the beach. We were supposed to meet the youth in our ward who were going to be at the beach all day, but due to bad weather and a wedding that night that the Bishop had to officiate, they left just as we got there. So instead of having all these young women to help me with the boys, it was just our family. A note here, the REAL beach is a two and a half hour drive from Seattle, so we weren't just going to turn around and go home. Instead we drove our car out onto the beach (like everyone else), except that we got STUCK! Fortunately, the nice people there helped us get unstuck. Then Ruston went off with Brooke and Josh to fly a kite and I stayed back to put the boys to sleep and then scour the beach for leftover firewood that we could reuse to cook our hot dogs. I did eventually get enough for a fire, but just as I was getting it started it started to drizzle the typical Pacific Northwest drizzle. Nothing to drench you right off, but after 45min. in it you are surprisingly soaked! At this point the boys woke up, so I took them to the car to feed them and Ruston started cooking the hot dogs with the kids. The hot dogs turned out great, except that I unknowingly bought the hot and spicy ones. So the kids took one bite, and were desperate for water! This is where I threw in the towel. Now we are all soaked, covered in sand and hungry, so we cleaned up as best we could, went to McDonalds, and went home! We'll try the beach again another time.

This is my birthday, my last good birthday as I am now officially 29!, and will be for the rest of my life. What made this day interesting was that Ruston tried so hard to do a lot of cool things that flopped. For one, he tried to come home early, and would have until he took the wrong bus after getting off the train and headed to Tacoma instead of home. He did get me sushi, but due to the bus thing by the time he got back into Bonney Lake, it had been sitting for over an hour. And lastly, we ran out of cake mixes at the last minute, so although he wanted to make a cake, when there aren't any mixes around, you're late getting home from work and you have four kids four and under, there's really only so much you can do about it. All in all though, it was a fun day and I appreciated all the effort Ruston put into it.

This pic is from the ZOO. Yes, with the help of my mother and neighbor, I took the family to the zoo. Brooke loved the petting zoo, Josh on other hand thought the animals were going to eat him, and would NOT feed them!

Lastly, for this post, Ruston took the kids salmon fishing. As part of my birthday present, since I don't really have time to go fishing right now, he is going to catch me a salmon. Josh had a ton of fun casting out and reeling in, as did Brooke. However, all they managed to catch was Ruston in the rear end! Fortunately, it didn't take long to untangle that and no one got hurt. I'll have to admit that I think it is so fabulous that we can drive ten minutes from our house and go salmon fishing, it has to be one of the greatest things about living in Seattle.

Luke Laughing

I hope this worked. Luke can laugh now and it's the cutest thing ever! Zach wants to, but hasn't quite figured it out all the way. He just opens his mouth all the way and ends up smiling for a long time instead of laughing.

It's nice to find some joy in all of this work!

The Baby Blessing

Here are some photos from the eventful day. Actually, it's kind of wierd, but Ruston and I aren't really into the whole big deal of it all. My wonderful friend Katie mailed us the blessing outfits her boys used, and so we put our boys in them, took them to church and blessed them.

Ruston did do a wonderful job with the blessings. . . but then it's a blessing, and doesn't that really mean that Heavenly Father has good things in store, not Ruston? Anyway, he did a good job, the blessings were fabulous, and it was nice to have Grandma and Grandpa Pack here (but mostly it was nice to have them here because Grandpa took Josh on his first fishing trip where the caught the usual . . . nothin'.)

Bring them up in the way they should go . . .

I think the scripture says something to the extent of, "Bring them up in the way they should go and when they are grown they won't depart from it". It's certainly not word for word, but boys, were banking on it. GO COUGARS!

As an FYI, they had their two month check up and Luke (on the left) weighs 13 lbs. 4 oz. and Zach weighs 12 lbs. 4 oz. They are just chunkin' it up, and I couldn't be a prouder mama.

My Other Hero

Okay, so the accommodations were terrible (a mattress in the living room), the work load overwhelming, and the food . . . actually that might have been the only redeeming aspect of this job. However, the memoreies instilled in those she served will never be forgotten. Thanks to a wonderful mother-in-law who cooked, cleaned, did laundry, and tended to all of our needs . . .

THANKS!!!

She was a life saver and we certainly couldn't have made it through the month of June without all of her efforts.

??? The Mystery Photo ???

What is Josh doing? Any guesses?

My Baby Brother's a Missionary!

Okay, not to steal the thunder from Andrew, but I have to mention that my sister's hair looks so cute! I haven't seen it since she cut it, and I LOVE IT! I hope she keeps it that way for a while. Also as you scroll down to the last picture you'll see her son Carter, and wow, he is so big. I'm always so amazed at how much everyone else's kids change.

Now to the real reason for this post.

It finally happened, my baby brother is headed on his mission. He got his call back in May and is headed to the Columbia, South Carolina mission. I wish he was going foreign, but don't most people hope to go somewhere exotic? Then again, I've never been to Columbia and I'm sure there are parts of Columbia that will be as foreign as anywhere outside of the US. I'm also jealous of my brother Jeff and his wife Andrea, who will be only hours away!

What a sharp looking guy! I like the suit, like the tie, like it all. You'll have to remind the girls in South Carolina to back off, your servin' the Lord.

Good luck baby brother! We'll send you cookies, pictures from the kids and keep you in our prayers. We hope these next two years are some of the best of your life. We love you and can't wait to see you when you get home.

Josh's Birthday

On June 30, our little Joshua turned 3 years old. In the last couple of months he's been to several birthday parties, so when his turn came, he was so excited. He loved the streamers we had up downstairs, and the balloons, and everyone who ever asked him what he wanted for his birthday all got the same answer, a water gun. If you asked him what he was going to do with it, he also gave the same answer, spray BROOKE! Because he was so insistent on the water gun, we did finally gave in. Brooke gave him two water guns for his birthday. One for him to use and one for her to defend herself. To my utter amazement, there have been no fights, no crying and no arguing about them.

Josh was also set on having a monster truck cake, and this is what we came up with. The basis for the idea came out of a book we have for cut-up cakes, and then we added a few things. Needless to say, Josh thought it was the coolest thing ever, and when it was all said and done, I was pretty impressed with my craftiness.