Spring 2016
The Spring was kind of a blur for me. In March we found out we were pregnant with the twins (again, more posts on that whole experience to come) and I continued to be horribly sick and bone weary day in and day out. This was a very hard time for me as I felt completely inadequate as a mother to my little ladies, unable to do much of anything with them except keep them fed, clean and safe each day. Burke was my rock through this all and I was so grateful for his love and support.
After a couple of both positive and negative experiences and several fervent prayers, we also decided we needed to sell our house and started exploring options to build in our favorite neighborhood in our ward. The more we looked into it, the more excited I became about the prospect and we began to move forward with serious intentions to build. In April we put our house on the market and it sold within 4 days for more than we had hoped! We were shocked as we realized we needed to make plans for a place to live while we built our new home. Yet wonder of wonders, my brother Elijah (who is living and working at the embassy in Turkey) decided with all the civil unrest in Turkey it would be wise to make backup living plans for his wife Marinda and 4 sons if things got too dicey in Turkey and they needed to be evacuated. With Marinda's sister also living in Enoch, Cassie being in St. George and our parents just a couple hours away, they bought a home in Enoch right about this same time and offered us the opportunity to rent their home while we built on the condition that if they were evacuated then we would need to find somewhere else to live. As Elijah had been made the LDS Branch President in Turkey not long before, I thought for certain the Lord would protect them and keep them in Turkey as long as they were needed, so we accepted the offer and began to pack up our sweet home and make preparations to move. More to this story continued in the "Summer 2016" recap. :)
Below are a few pictures and notes of our spring happenings.
March Recap
On March 11, Marie and Alan took all of the potty trained grandkids for the day and night for a farm day and cousin sleepover. The kids got to go for rides on the new pony, play with the darling puppies, feed the cows, 4-wheel ride, etc. They loved it and I got a heavenly nap with Darcie at home while Daphne ate up all the cousin time. Win-win.
Burke and I both want our kiddos to believe in magic, Santa Claus, etc. Early in the spring Burke added a door knob and knocker to one of our trees in the backyard that looked like the perfect door into a fairy world. The "fairies" began leaving notes for Daphne from time to time and this is actually how we told Daphne and Darcie we were pregnant. In February, Burke and Daphne made a wooden platform one day to leave outside the fairy door as a safe place to leave notes. Over time, I decorated it with moss and rocks from the driveway to make it more fairy-ish and Burke made the cute fence and arbor out of twigs from the yard. When it was finished, I put an old banana leaf notebook that I bought (but never used) in Hawaii back when I was 16 on the platform early one morning and when Daphne woke up we excitedly told her to check out what the fairies had given her! She has been using the book to write notes back and forth to the fairies and it has been super fun to see her imagination go wild.
At the end of March, we made the drive to Logan to celebrate Easter with my parents and the Kirby Family and to see my Dad before his last round of chemotherapy. His Leukemia came back this past fall and from October until April he received six rounds of chemotherapy. Burke was so glad for an excuse to get on the golf course with Papa before the chemo made him so sick again and I was grateful for a chance to spend some time together. The pictures above of Darcie cuddling with Grandpa are some of the most precious images I have ever taken. My girls adore their grandparents and it brings me so much happiness to see how much they want to be with them.
It was also sweet to see how often Darcie gravitated towards Grandma Ellsworth. Gentle, sweet spirits, both of them. And of course Daphne was beyond excited to spend time with Amira. I loved the sweet moment Burke captured when Amira read aloud "The Princess in Black" to Daphne.
April Recap
The highlight for me in April was announcing to our families and friends that we were preggo with twins and at the end of the month finding out they were identical boys! Below are a few pictures and notes from the month.
5) Grandpa Alan with a slew of the Adams grandkids on his birthday.
6) Sister-friends chillin and eating ice cream after dinner.
7) Burke and I out to dinner with Sarah Butters, Daren and Cami Lovell in St. George at The Rib and Chop. The babies demanded a huge steak that night and I willingly obliged them.
8) Little climber.
9) Dad drove all the way to Cedar to present to our My Motherhood Matters group about emotional well being. He was amazing and I could have listened to him for hours! Here he is reading to the girls minutes after he walked in the door. How they love him!
10) Burke discovered a tiger salamander living in our irrigation box outside and Daphne captured him for a couple of hours before releasing him back into the box and visiting him on a regular basis. She named him Sammy and was convinced he was our pet which led to great disappointment when he disappeared a few weeks later.
April 21 we put our house up on the market and on the 25th we accepted an offer! Here the girls are enjoying our beautiful yard while the realtor took pictures of the house and yard. We miss that little half acre paradise!
May Recap
After seeing her cousin Alyia riding her bike on a video, Daphne decided she was ready to finally ditch the training wheels for good. For about 3 days, Burke and I practiced with her each night after dinner. The real breakthrough came when he would send her from one side of the driveway to the other into the grass. Riding into the grass helped her gain confidence that she wasn't going to fall and get hurt before she took it to the road. Darcie was her biggest fan and would sit on the front bench clapping and cheering.
During 2015-2016, Daphne took weekly "Let's Play Music" lessons from Jamie Peterson. Cassie's kids have done this program and I have been so impressed by the results with Lydia transposing her piano music at age 9 after she completed the 3 year program! The first year they play the autoharp and bells, sing songs, do puppet shows and more to build upon basics of music theory and give them a core grasp of counting, rhythm, pitch, etc., so that by the time their little hands are finally big enough for the piano, they understand the instrument and just need to learn to move their fingers! Daphne enjoyed class, but bawled her eyes out at the recital practice. Thankfully she put on a brave face for the actual recital and made it through with no tears!
Daphne's last day of Little Star Preschool! Annie Lister has been her angel teacher the past year and a half and I attribute much of Daphne's positive social development to the time at preschool. I'm so grateful we had it right up the street and could walk there most mornings. The last two weeks Daphne showed off her new skills to her friends by riding her bike every day, always making sure to point out that there were NO training wheels attached. :)
We spent a lot of time in the yard in the month of May, soaking up our last few weeks and getting it as beautiful for the new owner as we could. One day Daphne found a NASTY deer leg in the middle of the yard that some roving dog must have dropped. I may have freaked out a bit when she carried it up to me (I thought it was a stick at first) and made her scrub her hands over and over again, but not until Burke got over laughing and taking a picture. So gross.
After a couple of both positive and negative experiences and several fervent prayers, we also decided we needed to sell our house and started exploring options to build in our favorite neighborhood in our ward. The more we looked into it, the more excited I became about the prospect and we began to move forward with serious intentions to build. In April we put our house on the market and it sold within 4 days for more than we had hoped! We were shocked as we realized we needed to make plans for a place to live while we built our new home. Yet wonder of wonders, my brother Elijah (who is living and working at the embassy in Turkey) decided with all the civil unrest in Turkey it would be wise to make backup living plans for his wife Marinda and 4 sons if things got too dicey in Turkey and they needed to be evacuated. With Marinda's sister also living in Enoch, Cassie being in St. George and our parents just a couple hours away, they bought a home in Enoch right about this same time and offered us the opportunity to rent their home while we built on the condition that if they were evacuated then we would need to find somewhere else to live. As Elijah had been made the LDS Branch President in Turkey not long before, I thought for certain the Lord would protect them and keep them in Turkey as long as they were needed, so we accepted the offer and began to pack up our sweet home and make preparations to move. More to this story continued in the "Summer 2016" recap. :)
Below are a few pictures and notes of our spring happenings.
March Recap
1) One legged Darcie in Burkie's work boots.
2) Darcie and I spending some one-on-one time together while Burke took Daphne out for a Daddy-Daughter date.
3) Burkie building Princess Castles with the girls while I writhe on the couch. Best daddy/husband ever.
4) Darcie gains confidence on the tire swing. Up until this point she would get nervous with even tiny pushes.
5 & 6) Daphne recreates the "bow head" look from when she was a baby after looking through her baby book.
7) The park behind us finally got a piece of jungle gym equipment the month before we move.
8) Daphne starts experimenting with spelling words on her own in the tubby. I thought her spelling of "butrfli" (butterfly) was adorable.
On March 11, Marie and Alan took all of the potty trained grandkids for the day and night for a farm day and cousin sleepover. The kids got to go for rides on the new pony, play with the darling puppies, feed the cows, 4-wheel ride, etc. They loved it and I got a heavenly nap with Darcie at home while Daphne ate up all the cousin time. Win-win.
One of my favorite parts of the day is when the girls want to wave goodbye to Burke as he leaves for work. Even on the cold mornings, they wrap up in blankies and sit and wave goodbye until he is all the way down the corner and out of sight. In the evenings, they take turns at the window watching for his car to pull in and then run screaming "Daddy!!" to the door as soon as his white car appears. Such a little thing, but a tender thing for me to observe and be a part of day after day.
Love these two little ladies more than words! These are two of my favorite pictures of them from the last year, both taken in March. Darcie - our somber baby and Daphne our goon! It's fun to see how very different their personalities are as they grow.
At the end of March, we made the drive to Logan to celebrate Easter with my parents and the Kirby Family and to see my Dad before his last round of chemotherapy. His Leukemia came back this past fall and from October until April he received six rounds of chemotherapy. Burke was so glad for an excuse to get on the golf course with Papa before the chemo made him so sick again and I was grateful for a chance to spend some time together. The pictures above of Darcie cuddling with Grandpa are some of the most precious images I have ever taken. My girls adore their grandparents and it brings me so much happiness to see how much they want to be with them.
It was also sweet to see how often Darcie gravitated towards Grandma Ellsworth. Gentle, sweet spirits, both of them. And of course Daphne was beyond excited to spend time with Amira. I loved the sweet moment Burke captured when Amira read aloud "The Princess in Black" to Daphne.
On Monday morning before we drove home, Burke, Daphne, Darcie and I were able to visit Dad briefly at the cancer center and deliver a group gift from the siblings and grandkids. Gabe and Ellen had thoughtfully coordinated for a Millennium Falcon lego set group gift to help Dad through his last round. You see, the steroids in the chemo cocktail would always make sleep impossible for Dad on that first night, sometimes two before the sickness really rocked his boat. On those sleepless steroid nights, he would read or do puzzles for hours until pure exhaustion set in, so Gabe and Ellen had the fabulous idea to give him a lego set to work on. He loved it and had the whole thing finished in 2 days!
The highlight for me in April was announcing to our families and friends that we were preggo with twins and at the end of the month finding out they were identical boys! Below are a few pictures and notes from the month.
1) Turning our "tents to the prophets" during April General Conference.
2) At bedtime one night Daphne hiked her pj bottoms up and said, "Look! I'm like Grandpa Bush!" We died laughing!
3 & 4) Darcie was "helping" me make dinner one night when she started to eat the whole brick of cheese. Can't say that I blame her. I think that was also one of her first fountain ponytails.
5) Grandpa Alan with a slew of the Adams grandkids on his birthday.
6) Sister-friends chillin and eating ice cream after dinner.
7) Burke and I out to dinner with Sarah Butters, Daren and Cami Lovell in St. George at The Rib and Chop. The babies demanded a huge steak that night and I willingly obliged them.
8) Little climber.
9) Dad drove all the way to Cedar to present to our My Motherhood Matters group about emotional well being. He was amazing and I could have listened to him for hours! Here he is reading to the girls minutes after he walked in the door. How they love him!
10) Burke discovered a tiger salamander living in our irrigation box outside and Daphne captured him for a couple of hours before releasing him back into the box and visiting him on a regular basis. She named him Sammy and was convinced he was our pet which led to great disappointment when he disappeared a few weeks later.
Darcie turned 18 months and got to start going to nursery. She has done pretty well and clings to Brother Stephens or Brother Barton when she feels sad. 1 o'clock church is a kick in the pants with no nap time and our baby who NEVER falls asleep anywhere but her crib fell asleep 2 weeks in a row after church once she started nursery. Poor sweetheart.
The biggest highlight for me in May was when my Dad's cancer was declared in remission again. We are all so grateful to still have our Daddy with us! This man is unbeatable! Other highlights pictured and noted below.
1) Mothers Day morning Burke's Ward Council and PEC meetings were canceled. He and Daphne and I knocked out a puzzle together in a couple of hours and had so much fun. I am a puzzle addict once I get started.
2) Sleeping beauties. In recent months when Darcie is sad at bedtime, Daphne will climb into her crib with her and sing her songs. I love hearing them laugh in their room together and I always know when Daphne has decided to return to her own bed because Darcie starts crying, "Nooooo! Daph noooo!!"
3) Daphne was gifted a tube a of lip gloss and spent a morning primping herself and Darcie in the mirror.
4) One of our last walks in the Cottonwood neighborhood and before walking became too difficult for me this pregnancy. The girls always loved walking over to Bishop Drew's house and petting the miniature donkeys, Beans and Tamalie and admiring the crippled llama from afar.
5 & 6) Why are towel babies fresh from the tubby the cutest thing on the planet?
7) Lots of reading books at our house, all day, every day.
8) Hilarious leather jacket from the Kirbys looked too fab on Darcie.
9) Another visit to the mini burrows, Beans and Tamale.
10) Darcie is obsessed with dogs and couldn't get enough of this fluffy pup.
11) Daphne and I spend time after breakfast teaching Darcie her colors with puff balls. This was the first morning I felt like Darcie's verbal skills really started to manifest themselves as she mimicked each word for the colors as best she could.
12) Burke and his 3 brothers (Mike, Kevin and Brett) surprised their parents by driving down to the St. George Temple on a Tuesday night and showing up at their initiatory shift. They happened to get there when Marie was crossing the foyer, headed down to meet Alan in the cafeteria and she said it made her heart skip a beat as she watched her boys all walk into the temple together. Alan was so surprised, emotional and happy to have the chance to take them through the initiatory work.
My wonderful sister-in-law, Kristen, made each of us ladies in the family these beautiful prints for Mothers Day and wrote the sweetest email to us about our examples to her as mothers. It was incredibly thoughtful and came at just the right time.
This is a bad screen shot of the front elevation of our house plans. We started to design our house with Julie Leeder in May and loved working with her. She knew just the right way to direct us and keep us in line with our hopeful budget.
Most nights the girls demand wrestle time from Burke. It is a wonderful arrangement as it burns off energy before bedtime, allows Burke special bonding time with his little ladies and gives me a break for a few minutes!
After seeing her cousin Alyia riding her bike on a video, Daphne decided she was ready to finally ditch the training wheels for good. For about 3 days, Burke and I practiced with her each night after dinner. The real breakthrough came when he would send her from one side of the driveway to the other into the grass. Riding into the grass helped her gain confidence that she wasn't going to fall and get hurt before she took it to the road. Darcie was her biggest fan and would sit on the front bench clapping and cheering.
During 2015-2016, Daphne took weekly "Let's Play Music" lessons from Jamie Peterson. Cassie's kids have done this program and I have been so impressed by the results with Lydia transposing her piano music at age 9 after she completed the 3 year program! The first year they play the autoharp and bells, sing songs, do puppet shows and more to build upon basics of music theory and give them a core grasp of counting, rhythm, pitch, etc., so that by the time their little hands are finally big enough for the piano, they understand the instrument and just need to learn to move their fingers! Daphne enjoyed class, but bawled her eyes out at the recital practice. Thankfully she put on a brave face for the actual recital and made it through with no tears!
Daphne's last day of Little Star Preschool! Annie Lister has been her angel teacher the past year and a half and I attribute much of Daphne's positive social development to the time at preschool. I'm so grateful we had it right up the street and could walk there most mornings. The last two weeks Daphne showed off her new skills to her friends by riding her bike every day, always making sure to point out that there were NO training wheels attached. :)
We spent a lot of time in the yard in the month of May, soaking up our last few weeks and getting it as beautiful for the new owner as we could. One day Daphne found a NASTY deer leg in the middle of the yard that some roving dog must have dropped. I may have freaked out a bit when she carried it up to me (I thought it was a stick at first) and made her scrub her hands over and over again, but not until Burke got over laughing and taking a picture. So gross.
The iris starts the Kirbys gave us 2 years ago finally produced gorgeous purple blooms this year. The girls were constantly outside with their noses buried in the lovely blooms that smelled exactly like grape juice!
Backyard campout and delicious tinfoil dinners on our last weekend in the Cottonwood house. The neighborhood kids were outside screaming until almost midnight and kept waking the girls up, but we stuck it out because Daphne had made us PROMISE we wouldn't go inside.
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