Easter 2010

Here are some snap shots from the Easter egg hunt in my parents back yard. Sophie wanted to eat the eggs and when she couldn't decided to eat some dirt. More pictures to come, with their cute Easter dresses that I made this year! It was a fun project and I am so proud of the results, I just need to take a picture of them!! Why is it so hard to get a picture of these girls looking at the camera???!!!

Pacific Half Marathon

I love you girls!! Thanks for running with me!!

(Waiting for me at the finish line!)

So last fall some friends approached me to run a half marathon with them at the end of March in Malibu, CA. I have never been a huge runner, but decided to start running with these girls in the early mornings before Rob left for work. We trained all through the winter, and finally I ran my first half marathon on March 27th! It was an amazing experience. The race turned out to have a few more hills then I wanted it to, but I did it! My family was a great strength to me, I could not wait to see them waiting for my at the finish line. My sister Mariah made shirts for my girls to wear that said, "team amanda", and "that is my mommy!" It was so sweet. I still can't believe I did it, and would not trade those morning runs with my friends for anything. Especially now that pretty much all of those friends have moved! I am giving myself another few weeks before I start training for my next race...and part of me just wants to buy a bike!! What I learned about myself, and friendship from running this race and training for it- I would not trade for anything!

Lake Trip #1 2010

After getting the boat from the shop, we decided to take it out for a test spin before summer comes in full force. We were lucky to have our good friends, the Strobehn's with us on our maiden voyage for 2010! Trish took lots of pictures, because she is an amazing photographer and I can not take pictures to save my life! Here are a few of the pictures that she took! We had a great time letting the kids drive the boat in circles. The weather was wonderful and we only had one almost injury! Emma fell out of the bow of the boat onto the boat ramp. She still had her life jacket on which saved her! She barely even cried! Not even a scratch on her! I call that a successful boat trip!

She is here!

My sister Shelly finally had her little girl yesterday afternoon! Baby Hannah Michelle Mckibben was born weighing 7lbs, 2oz., 19 1/2 inches long! Both Shelly and Hannah are doing great! She is just perfect and we are so thrilled to have a cousin on my side of the family! I will post pictures of her soon! We love you Shelly and Hannah!

Where to begin...

Summer 2009 recap

My one accomplishment this summer! I made dresses for the girls for the fourth of July! I made one for all of my little nieces there age as well!

Fourth of July party at the Barratt's

It has been so long since I have had a chance to post on this blog! I don't even know where to begin! So I am going to sum up some of the things that have happened this summer in pictures! And of course I am now recommitting myself to updating this blog more frequently!

Summer 2009

Highlights:

- Fourth of July trip to Logan, Utah! Thank you Jensen family for a fabulous time! And Barratt's for the fourth of July party at your house in Park City!

-Quick trip to Idaho to visit family and spend one last summer at the cabin in McCall, Idaho. This trip involved three flat tires, three babies, and just two people to take care of all of that! Thank you Aunt Melanie!

-Labor Day weekend with the Finlinson clan! Bear Lake was a blast!

- Melanie's wedding!

- Shelly's baby shower!

- Mariah's volleyball games! The girls are really good at yelling, "Go Bulldogs" and we are working on "Go Cougars!"

- A quick girls trip to St. George to see the musical "Footloose" at Tuacahn!

I am missing so much! But here are a few pictures!

Melanie's wedding! Mariah, mel, me, and shelly

Melanie's wedding! The girls were very bad flower girls, but they looked beautiful!

Emma twirled all night saying she was a princess!

Mel and I, after Shelly's baby shower, at Mariah's volleyball tournament

The twins at Bear Lake! I can never get both of them standing and looking at the camera!

We have spent many days and nights helping my parents get the house ready for the wedding! The girls helped Grandma spread dirt everywhere and plant flowers! It was really sweet!

This is a random picture of Camden showing me how to properly wear a bra!

This was taken at Bear Lake! We were packing to go home and all of our nieces and nephews were in the car watching a movie with the girls! There were kids in every open spot of that car, and Emma was sleeping through the whole thing!

The twins on there first tube ride with Sarah

Sarah and Abby

We had a very busy, but great summer and the fall is turning out even better! I will post more soon! I can't wait to get the pictures from Sophie's first birthday, and more from Melanie's wedding!

Sophie

The Challenge

My good friend Trish accepted the challenge this week of taking pictures of the girls. It is an almost impossible task! I am really surprised that we got a few good pictures! Trish and I went to the park with all of our children and the help of my sister Shelly. I was running around saving children from the wild peacocks and ducks at the pond, while Trish snapped pictures! Thank you Trish! Here are a few of the pictures:

Double Trouble!

Trish also took some pictures of Sophie at her house, I will post some of those soon! Can you believe Sophie is already six months old? My little angel baby is growing up!

Will I survive?

I pray for many things each day, but the following three things come up every morning...

1. That no one will be seriously injured due to the fact that I am simply out numbered and can never be holding all three at once

2. That I will be patient.

3. That I will have time to teach each one of them the things they need to learn to be successful!

With that being said, here are a few stories from this week!

On Thursday's we go to the park with our friends! Every week something happens that makes me think I should never go to the park again. A few weeks ago, Camden and Emma were swinging together like normal, when all of sudden Emma did not want to be near Camden anymore. In a moment of anger, she attacked her sister like a wild animal! When Camden came to me, I thought she had smeared strawberries on her cheek, but it was actually blood. Her sister left the Mark of Zorro in her cheek, a giant Z! On this same day at the park, Camden tried to walk down the slide. She made it half way down, before gravity took over and she flipped off the side of the slide and landed on her back on the ground. Meanwhile, her sister Emma fell threw the crack between the bridge and the railing. It was not a good moment. I was torn, who do I run to first, Emma seemed ok, so I ran to Camden to check her limbs for a break. She didn't even cry, jumped up and ran to go down the slide again, frustrated that I am holding her back to check her! I then freed Emma from where she was pinned, only to send her on her way up the stairs again! I left the park completely exhausted, emotionally and physically!


Not two hours later...I had everyone in their cribs for a nap! I was finally going to eat lunch and relax! When all of a sudden I can hear Camden screaming upstairs. Now normally I would let her scream herself to sleep, but something about her scream made me want to check on her. When I come into their room I looked to her crib, only to realize that I need to look up. Camden was standing on top of the crib rails, one foot on her crib and one foot on Emma's crib, holding onto the wall like a rock climber. She was scared to death! Thank heavens! She has not tried this since. Good thing I checked on her, who knows how long she would stand their before deciding to jump.



This week, Camden climbed over the side rails into Emma's crib. I could hear giggling from their room so I didn't go in for awhile, when I finally decided to get them up, they were both smiling at me from Emma's crib. The most interesting part of Camden's climbing is that she never climbs to get out of her room and the crib, she is just trying to get to Emma. She climbed into Emma's crib again the next day, and Emma bit her, so I finally separated the cribs!



A few days later, I went upstairs to put Sophie in her crib for a nap. When I came back downstairs Camden and Emma were both on top of the kitchen table throwing Easter basket confetti on the ground.



Sophie eating food for the first time! Oh bananas!

Just a sampling of my life lately...will I survive this?

San Francisco Trip

My parents decided to take a trip to Monterrey and San Francisco, CA for Spring Break, and at the last minute we decided to go! It was quite the adventure, traveling with three babies, on a plane, to CA! We had some fun moments, and then a lot of not so fun moments. I will not be in a hurry to ride on an airplane with three babies again anytime soon! We visited the Monterrey Bay Aquarium, Muir Woods, San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf, took a ferry out around the bay, Union Square, and Ghiradelli Square. We ate lots of food, and made lots of funny memories!

Some funny moments include:

- Riding on the trolley car with two strollers

- Emma throwing up in the airport right before we board the plane

-Sleeping with Camden for two nights

- trying to entertain the twins in the airport when our flight was delayed an hour

-fitting three car seats in the back of a rental car! (Good job Rob!)

-Swimming at the hotel

-Rob pushing the handicap door bell on my parents hotel room, the button getting stuck and making a loud noise for an hour! He door bell ditched so nobody knew he rang the door! (Of course not telling anyone about it until breakfast the next morning!)

-China town swindling! I got two cute little Chinese baby dresses for the twins for an unbeatable price!

-the beautiful, peaceful, car rides when all three girls were sleeping!

Here a few of the many pictures from the trip!

Little Sophie!

Me, Camden, and Shelly, sitting on the ferry boat! Camden was running everywhere! That was probably the only time I smiled while on the boat!

Grandma and Grandpa Gough with the twins

Emma

We drove from Monterrey, CA to San Francisco, along the coast! We stopped and took pictures by this beautiful lighthouse! Camden and Sophie are sleeping in the car!

The girls exploring at the Aquarium

Emma trying to be patient for her dinner!

The whole family at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium!

Sophie and Amanda- Ghiradelli Square

On the plane to Monterrey! So happy to finally be going! Camden would not sit still!