Day Trip to Sedona

My grandmother turned 80 this week and to celebrate her birthday, my mom and I took the boys and Mamaw up to Sedona for the day. It was an unseasonally cool and rainy day, but was fun to get out of town and walk around gorgeous Sedona.


The first thing we did was stop at the Chapel of the Holy Cross. I'd never been there and it was so cool! It was a church built into the Sedona red rock. You had to park at the bottom of the rock and then walk up the very steep road to get to the church. Let me tell you how difficult that was to do pushing 50 pounds of boys plus a heavy stroller!! It was definitely worth it, though.

This is the view of the mountains from in front of the church.
More of the view.

This is the front of the church.

Me and the boys. Look how happy Brandt is!

Mamaw, me and the boys. It was SO windy.

Mom, me and the boys with some of the view.

We were able to go inside the church and sit for a few minutes before the boys started to get restless.

Look at the mansion that was on the same street as the church. It's huge!

Happy Brandt!

Mi madre!

Way down there is where we had to park. It was so steep!

More of me and the boys

Then we went to Tlaquepaque and shopped around for a bit. The shopping center has a really pretty courtyard. It's mandatory to stop and take a picture in front of the fountain.

Later we got lunch at Oaxaca. The chimichangas were phenominal. I think I might need to go back for another! The boys were also being so cute and drawing lots of attention.

Mom and the birthday girl, Mamaw, with her birthday earrings.

Later we walked around Sedona and went to see the Cowboy Club. It's a historic place where many cowboy artists used to come and meet.

Our day was so much fun. Can't wait for the next day trip!

A couple videos of the boys

The boys have become more interactive with each other lately. The other day, Carter hopped on top of Brandt and started wrestling with him. Brandt has this look like, "This is kind of funny, but what ARE you DOING?"

In this video, Carter was in solitary confinement and Brandt was keeping him company.

9 month well check

Needless to say, I was a little late scheduling this appointment. The boys are 10 1/2 months old already! I did schedule it about a month ago, but our pediatrician is very popular and difficult to schedule an appointment with.

Here are the boys' stats:

• Carter weighs 25 lbs.
• Brandt weighs 21 lbs
• Both boys are 29 inches long

It was a pretty brief visit since there were no shots and I forgot to ask what percentile they were in.

Dr. Magalnick noticed Carter's new teeth and was VERY surpised. Apparently, they are the 2 year old molars. He said it's very rare to see a child as young as he is get them. Carter sure is in a hurry to grow up! Slow down, little man! I guess we'll be serving steak for his birthday dinner!:)

The boys at 10 months

Holy moly! We're in the double digit months!

This month has been one FULL of changes. Taking care of twins has moved to the next level. It has been my favorite month so far to see all the changes and experience them with the boys, but it has also been the MOST difficult. We've had to start disciplining which has been so difficult. AND...I hate it. I don't think I'm very good at it. My mom says you're not supposed to like it. This is the first stinky part of parenting. I hate being stern with the boys.

Since the boys have both become fully mobile, they have started to get into everything! Cords are by far their favorite. They do anything to find computer cords, lamp cords, phone charger cords. I never realized how many cords we have!!

When we would see them doing something they shouldn't, we first just said "No" sternly (or yelled it when we were across the room and whatever they were doing was really bad/dangerous). That didn't work. At all. It only frustrated Eric and me.

Since we are complete novices, I had to look up ways to discipline. The one we liked best and we've implemented is the "Carter/Brandt, that is a NO! and move them somewhere else" method. By saying their name and "that is a no," they seem to get the hint and hopefully we won't overuse the phrase as saying "no" was being said all the time!

The most frustrating part of starting to discipline is my inability to keep a straight face. Like this morning: Brandt discovered the Wii. I told him it was a no. He stopped, turned around and we had a stare down until I broke and smiled at him. He then proceeded to touch the Wii again. Ugh...failure!! Even when you act like your really mad at him, he'll give you the biggest smile and keep doing what he's doing and sometimes I just can't get to him to remove him from the situation.

More about the boys this month:

• Carter has taken off crawling. I can no longer do anything when the boys are playing. I have to stay right with them.
• Brandt has become a pro at standing up and is now "cruising" along furniture. The other day, I got him to stand a few seconds by himself.
• The boys become bored with their toys quickly and like to go exploring the house with their newfound mobility.
• Carter loves to be bounced so he can go "aaaahhhhh" and hear his voice when he bounces
• Carter has continued to fake cough. This has become a party trick! He showed off for everyone at Easter. We're working on covering our mouth, though :)
• Brandt loves to close doors and play with door stops. I usually have one boy on the ground in our bedroom while I'm changing the other and the first thing he does is go and close the door.
• Brandt's noise vocabulary has begun to increase this month. He's always been the less vocal. It's fun to hear him and he has such a sweet voice.
• Carter now has 12 teeth!! That's right...12!! I think the child is trying to have a full mouth of teeth by the time he's one. He cut the teeth right behind the incisor teeth on the top and bottom.
• The boys' diets have also expanded this month. They've gotten really good at chewing so we give them little bit of whatever we eat. They love avocados, dried cranberries, blueberries, madarin oranges, eggs, meatballs, and mashed potatoes. We've also started giving them a little bit of juice in their sippy cups. It has taken some time to master the sippy cup, but they are doing really well.

With all this, what they could they possibly do this month! :)

Happy Easter!!!

He is Risen!! He is Risen Indeed!!!

We celebrated our first Easter with the niños yesterday. We went to the 8 o'clock service at my parents' church, Desert View Bible. Now I know we're a little late in doing this, but it was the first time we put the boys in the nursery. I wasn't expecting it to be any problem. The service wasn't during a nap and I knew the boys would have fun playing. We dropped them off and they did great! I, on the other hand, was a different story. I cried almost the entire service!!! When we picked them up, the nursery ladies complimented me on how happy and well behaved the boys were. Those are my niños!! I'm so proud!

A few members of our extended family were sick, so Easter ended up just being my parents, Eric me and the boys.

The highlight of the boys' day was probably getting to visit with their favorite dogs. Every time we go over to my parents', we take the boys outside to see their dogs (they have four britneys). The boys LOVE the dogs. They just think it's the greatest thing when the dogs sniff them and give them kisses.

Oh, Brandt learned how to climb stairs while we were over there! I am SO not ready for this. We have pretty steep stairs in our house and I really don't want to have to get gates.

We had a great, low key Easter. The boys loved their Easter pales from their grandma and grandpa (especially the peeps...they were a huge hit!) and I especially enjoyed the meal...lamb. It might be my favorite meal of the year.

Each year, we take a family picture after church and before everyone gets out of their Easter outfits. This year, Dad couldn't figure out how to set the timer on the camera, so we had to take our pictures in shifts. If I was photoshop skilled, I'd photoshop everyone into the same picture.

I think it's so funny to see the pictures you get with babies. You never have any idea what they're doing. We were looking into the sun and Brandt looks like he's very angry and Carter has his lips puckered.

Take two: something about Mommy was really interestingWith the grandparents and great grandma
With the grandparents

Later that day, the boys had a great time playing with the coffee table. It was the perfect height to stand up at. For some reason, though, Brandt kept trying to eat the grout. Ick!

Making Dinner with my buddies

Making dinner has become increasingly difficult lately as the boys have become more mobile. They get bored with their toys and like to get into things they shouldn't. I have to come up with ways to entertain the twins until I can put something edible on the table!
The other night, we had a leftover box from our Costco shopping. They had fun playing with the box and it gave me a few minutes to cook.

And here are some pictures from dinner that night....

A Case of the Pertussis

There is an epidemic in our house. Both of the boys have come down with a case of pertussis. However, these horrible coughing fits only occur when the boys are wanting attention. I don't quite understand it because the boys have received their vaccinations :). I just hope their coughs get better soon!

Below is a little glimpse of one of Carter's coughing fits. Oh, pobrecito!!!