The Christmas scene at our house was really something this year. My husband’s sweet family came into town on the 21st, and they were here partying at the hotel, and meeting the twins through their baptism on the 23rd. We had a great time eating together, pool partying together (not me – don’t worry!), and doing the first ever sibling grab bag gift exchange with the fifteen minute, fifteen dollar rule.  Three of my husband’s siblings (the ones without kids) pitched in together to get one big gift for each family. Before I tell, I should show you 
Yes, that’s right. What you see in our windows from left to right: our Christmas tree, our retro bulb wreath hanging above the cooler full of pop and in front of a table full of groceries, and, in our third window, the static sparks flying off the heads of children in our new indoor bouncy castle. The result of so much partying? Well, for one thing a lot of our gifts are still in a garbage bag in our bedroom. 
Author: lizziejank
Little shouters
Hi all! Thanks so much for your many well wishes! I thought I would attach a few pictures from our first day with our new little friends. Lina and Daphne greeted their new siblings with enthusiasm, and Nana had to start practicing her two baby hold. Anyways, here they are, and ain’t they sweet? We might just up and pop with love. 
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Stockings
I just wanted to take a moment to be pleased that I finished the Christmas stockings! True, none of the ends are woven in, and none of the hanging loops are done, and mine is only about five inches long so far, but who cares? I’m done! I almost expected my water to break as I was closing the last toe – the stockings being the one thing that I had to finish before the babies come. I started Luke’s a long time ago, thought I didn’t like the pattern part way through and stalled out. Then, in a binge of knitting righteousness thought I should finish it anyways. I did, and then actually liked it. Starting out to knit four kids stockings seemed unreasonable, so I thought I would just do one or two this year. As soon as I was working on Lina’s, the pressure was on to finish Daphne’s before the babies came. Daphne would stand at my knee and say “what you makin’ mama?” – Lina would fill her in that it was her Christmas stocking, and Daphne would say “and me stocking mama, and me!” So I pretty much did a knitting sprint through those two, and then decided to try the twins too. Now, it doesn’t really matter if I don’t get mine done (it will be the same pattern as Luke’s, but in the girl colors). YAY!
Advent Calendar Pictures
Advent Calender
I just couldn’t resist when I saw all this talk about the Advent excitement! As is very obvious by the last couple posts, my little family has been very blessed to live near my parents and celebrate the Sabbath with them. My Mom is a bit of a superhero, and I am sure that if we didn’t ever do anything by ourselves at our house, my kids would still grow up loving Christmas and the Advent season. But just not doing anything at our house would be (to put it mildly) pretty dumb.
A couple of years ago, my husband and I decided to make an Advent calender. A friend of mine had told me that her mom would make a calender out of old cards, and the kids were on a rotation of days, so what was inside was specific to them. We thought this was a great idea, but when we started trying to get down to business, it started getting out of control, and a lot bigger!
The basic idea was that we wanted to put things in our Advent calender like “Get the Christmas tree today” or “Make Christmas cookies” or “Look under your pillow for a surprise.” The concern (I would think an obvious one for mothers) would be having your Advent calender contradict the spirit of the moment. I can easily see trying to persuade Read More
Double Time
So, today marks the thirty-fifth week in this pregnancy of mine, and it seems like an appropriate time to write a little post about the whole endeavor. A lot of women have asked me if being pregnant with twins is very different from carrying one baby, or just what it is like in general. The truth is that it is a lot like being pregnant with one, just more. It is as though you read one manuscript about pregnancy, and then the same thing was re-submitted to you in all caps with reckless use of exclamation points. The content is familiar, but somehow the tone has escalated.
My stretch marks, which once looked like a tasteful flame decal on an El Camino, have now out-done the most over-embellished jacked-up monster truck around. We just aren’t proceeding in moderation any more. When the babies move, I can start feeling downright motion sick. And I should mention that the babies love to move. It usually seems like they wake each other up. One will start moving, that little stretchy feeling, and after a little bit, the other will suddenly kick violently. I think it must be funny to have someone poke you in the eye while you are still in the womb. But speaking of poking, when I wake up in the mornings, the babies seem to be just firing up a Jane Fonda workout video, and I have to sit up in bed, prop pillows behind my back, and devote my attention to pushing very busy feet out of my ribs. Read More