All About Will

I have a ton of catching up to do on this blog. Let's start with Will. 

As I look through the pictures on my phone, the first thing that comes to mind is how much he loves his sisters. He REALLY loves those sisters. His adjustment to having two babies in the house has been as good as we ever could have hoped. 

Recently, he has developed a bit of an attitude. Some of the angry phrases are "No way!" "You can't tell me things." "It's mine!" He will sometimes string together all of the words he thinks are mean/bad: "No! Not ever! Never again! Not evermore!" However, the

 biggest issue that we have is his angry face. He really enjoys making angry faces and glaring at just about EVERYONE (except his sisters). Below, Will is sternly telling Papa Doug something. It is hard not to laugh.

Still, there are some times when he is the sweetest boy ever. He loves cuddles and massages of all kinds. He will sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and call me in to rub his feet.

He has been fully potty trained for a couple of months now. It was so much faster than I thought it would be. I would like to find some kind of preschool to send him to in the Fall, and I thought we should start the potty training several months before that. He had been talking about going to preschool, so I decided to use that as motivation. I told him that if he wanted to go to preschool, he couldn't wear diapers anymore. About two days later (with a few minor accidents), we were done! He wanted to go to preschool immediately. Oops. I really had thought it would take weeks or even months, so I had to make our own "preschool" at home until he is old enough to actually go somewhere. He loves his "calendar time" that we get to do when the babies are napping.

He is funny and thinks he is very sneaky. When there is something that he wants up on the kitchen counter, he will carry a box (or other suitable climbing object) into the kitchen, and say, "Mom... You go check on the babies..." Ha ha. Sometimes I let him get away with it.

He keeps life interesting and we love him!

Kate and Emily

I have hardly blogged since those babies were born. Life is a little busier these days. I just finished loading six months worth of pictures onto Flickr. It was so fun. I had not even gone back and looked at most of those pictures! The girls have changed so much and Will looked so much younger too.

For now, the pictures on my phone will have to do. Maybe I will do a summary of the last eight months soon. Maybe.

Let's talk about those cute babies.

Kate and Emily are now 8 months old. Although, they were 6 months old when I started this post. I don't know how that happened. 

They are sweet babies and are very patient with their brother's over-loving and their parents' crazy schedules.

Some unique things about Kate:

She is a bit dramatic. As a newborn, instead of fussing, she screamed a very high pitched scream! She always assumed a flying position on the floor instead of crawling/scooting (which she does a little now). She is most ticklish on her chest. She loves to sleep with her back arched and head twisted to the side. She loves to be upside down. She is good at babbling. She just barely had her first two teeth break through. I call her many variations of the nickname "Peanut" (sweet peanut, tiny peanut, pretty peanut, etc.) and "Katie girl."

Some unique things about Emily:

She is crawling and walking the furniture like a champ. She now has the ability to cause all kinds of trouble (and she does!). She puts everything in her mouth! She is a very smiley and happy girl. She has had two teeth since she was four months old and now has seven. She immediately rolls over to sleep on her tummy. She is most ticklish on her very chubby thighs. She does not like long car trips. I call her "Miss Emily" and "Emily girl" most of the time.

It has been a wonderful eight months. Some days are awesome. Many other days are totally crazy. It depends on which day you ask me. 

Daily Life with Three Kids

There are many days where all we do during a day is nurse babies, watch tv, read a few books, and throw together a few things to eat. Each day, I would like the accomplish three things: keep the kids fed/happy-ish, keep the house clean-ish, and make dinner. In reality, I can only accomplish about 1.5 of those three things. Usually, I choose the kids, and then I do a half attempt at either dinner or the house - never both. It is an interesting new way of life, but it is just fine for now. To keep my own sanity, I have been attempting to add a little variety to our daily activities. The twins are now 4 months old. It was time.

The following pictures are from our first outing with just me and the kids. We went to the mall. We spent a good chunk of time in the car in the mall parking lot while I nursed the babies and got all our stuff ready. It was quite the process!

We have been spending more time outside. California is wonderful for that!

We have plenty of time just hanging out inside, too.

We sure love our family!

A Hidden Danger of Potty Training

We are potty training Will right now. It is actually going quite well, except for one tiny incident this morning. Warning: Viewer Discretion is Advised.

Yes, that is exactly what you think it is. Yes, this picture was taken in our playroom. 

I thought this was hilarious, so I took this picture to send to Daniel at work. 

We both laughed about it.

My mom is currently visiting us to help with the potty training. She asked me to send her the picture so she could send it to my dad. My phone was dead, so I told Daniel to forward it to her. 

He sent her the picture (or so he thought). A few minutes later, he got a text back: "Excuse me. Do I know you?"

This was very strange considering that my mom was sitting two feet away and had requested the photo. 

It turns out that my mom's number was saved incorrectly in Daniel's phone. He had sent a questionable picture to a total stranger at 10:00 pm. 

We all had a good laugh about that one.

Life with Twins and a Toddler

We are slowly settling into our new life here. In short, we are really enjoying it. Here are some updates:

California 

The move went smoothly (thanks to lots of help from family and friends). We are renting a house here, which has been wonderful. I love having an extra bedroom, a backyard, a playroom, and a garage! This house also costs less than the apartment we rented in Washington. It is an older home and has some quirks (like aggregate flooring in part of the house!), but it is the perfect little house for us right now. We feel like real adults now that we have officially purchased some major appliances.

Extended Family

A big part of the reason we moved was to be close to our families. It is wonderful. We have been loving family dinners, time with cousins, lots of help, and grandparents loving our kids. The  Larsens are less than 5 minutes away so we see them frequently, and my mom has been able to come stay with us a few days each week. We plan on making lots of visits to my family soon (as soon as I figure out how to get out of the house with three kids). We sure love our families.

Daniel and Alexa

We have been busy trying to get everything put away and organized (while keeping the 3 kids alive and well). Moving to a new state, starting a new job, and having twins during the holiday season was definitely a lot to tackle at one time. I feel like we are finally almost getting things under control. One of my favorite discoveries here has been a grocery delivery service! You order online after the kids are asleep and then they are delivered the next morning! It is fantastic and life changing. I have also been a very frequent shopper at Amazon. I bet our mailman loves us! In other HUGE news, we both got smart phones! We finally gave in (years behind everyone else, including our parents) and got some beautiful iPhones. I think that has also contributed to the amount of online shopping I have done!

Will

Will has been an awesome big brother. He is still his mischievous toddler self, but he is so sweet to those babies. He brings them things, comforts them, and has been extremely understanding and patient. It probably helps that he has had tons of attention from all of the extended family. He keeps us on our toes with all of  the ways he wants to be independent. He regularly helps himself to treats, opens Christmas presents that don't belong to him, and even locks me out of the house occasionally. 

Kate and Emily

While having twins is sometimes difficult, they really are great babies. They have both started smiling now, which is so fun. Kate is usually a bit fussier during the day, and Emily takes her turn at night. Still, I really can't complain, because they have been sleeping for 8 hour stretches most nights. Angel babies!! Will never slept more than a few hours at a time until he was a year old, so I was not expecting this. It has been fantastic and is probably the reason I haven't gone crazy by now.

Big News!

Besides the recent birth of our twins, we have even more exciting news here at the Larsen house...

We are moving to Clovis, California! 

The kids and I are headed there this weekend, and Daniel will follow a week later with all of our stuff. We figured that the kids and I would really not be any help during the move, and it would just be better for us to get out of the way. We also thought about driving there, but decided that that would be a nightmare with two newborns that like to eat every hour or so. So, we will be flying. I'm sure it will still be crazy, but hopefully less so. At least it will be far fewer hours of craziness. We just can't seem to get away from moving with a newborn (or two!).

Daniel will be starting a new job working for a company called Sierra HR and we will get to live much closer to both families. We found a house to rent that is 5 minutes from Daniel's family (and about 2.5 hours from my family). We are so excited to spend more time with them and get some extra help too.

Speaking of help, we have had some awesome helpers with us lately. First, my mom came the week before the babies were born. I was so happy to have her here to watch Will while we were in the hospital. We took advantage of our last few days before the babies. We did lots of fun things with her (including pink pedicures with twin flowers - ignore the very fat pregnant feet!), and Daniel and I even went on a date to P. F. Changs. Will thought she was there to play with him 24 hours a day!

 

Next, Daniel's mom came. We loved having her. Will quickly made the switch and found a new best friend to play with!

We also had lots of wonderful friends and church members who visited and brought us many dinners. We are so grateful for all of the help!