St. Patrick's Day green feast

We have a tradition in our family of having a green breakfast and dinner for St. Paddy's day every year. The Henrys' hail from Ireland, so I feel that we need to celebrate our Irish heritage. This year we had lime punch, green chicken alfredo with spinach noodles, green salad with green ranch dressing, green beans, broccoli, and green fruit salad.

ah, the thrill of speed

Scott and Brighton enjoyed some male bonding time on Ethan Packer's scooter on Saturday. Brighton claimed he loved it afterwards, but while in the throes of the action, he was scared silly. That's not such a bad thing to this mother's organ-donor machine-hating ears.

Not everybody enjoys the taste of fake cheese

The twins' first taste of Cheetoes was less than enthusiastic. Keaton gagged and choked, and Waverly appeared more interested in Scott's spoon. We're wondering if they were switched at birth...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We found the gold at the end of the rainbow in these two cuties.

Twins really are double the fun...

When I first found out that I was going to have twins, I was, admittedly, not excited. I have seen twin moms up close and all the work that accompanies multiples, especially with other children in the home. Plus, I had Brighton, who was just over one year when we were delivered the news. And, true to my expectations, the first three months of their lives were brutal baby boot camp. I cannot begin to describe, even to a seasoned, veteran mother, how hard it was to care for, and feed, two needy babies in the early weeks of their lives. But, I have to recant and repent of my bad attitude. I am LOVING my twinfants. They are SO much fun. SO much work, yes. But worth every minute of it. We are so grateful for these two adorable, precious spirits that bring so much love and unity and joy to our home. I guess Heavenly Father did know what he was doing after all...

A Year with Frog and Toad

This past Christmas, we gave my Mom a new kind of gift. In order to create fun memories with Grandma LeBaron for Savannah and Irelynd, we gave Grandma a year of dates. In January we went to see "Bedtime Stories." In February we went to a Dr. Seuss birthday party at the Covey Center in Provo. Last Friday, for March's date, we went to see "A Year with Frog and Toad" at the Scera. It was surprisingly very funny, and we all had a good time. If anyone has a parent that doesn't need anything, I would suggest this gift. We've had fun doing them, and it's given us all something to look forward to.

Brighton got a haircut!

It finally happened--Scott took the shears to Brighton's golden curly locks. What I thought would be "a little off the top and sides" turned into "only a little on the top and sides." I was sad to see his baby curls go. Hopefully they'll grow back and then I'm guarding them with my life until he turns three.

Sex Ed. 101

Earlier this week, Brighton and I had a discussion about gender (who's a boy and who's a girl, etc.). He doesn't quite get it yet, but we're working on it. When I told him he is a boy, he said "no, my girl." I said, no, you're a boy. He would not relent. I tried a different approach. "Brighton, boys have pepes, and girls don't. You have a pepe, so you are a BOY." (Okay, I know you are supposed to use the correct terms for body parts, and we did teach our kids their correct names when we had that fun lesson, but I cannot get past the bigness of the word "penis" coming from my little kids. So, wrong or not, we have termed Brighton's plumbing a "pepe" (think Multiplicity)). "No, my don't have a pepe" he insisted, "my a girl." "No, you're a boy. You have a pepe." "No my don't! My a girl, not a buy [boy] My don't have pepe!" I can see we are going to have to revisit this lesson in a few weeks...

Waverly discovered her toes today!

Just a few pics for our album...

Today's physics lesson...

Today Brighton learned about the spatial dimensions of a human toddlers’ mouth. Evidently it fits one, maybe two, if you’re lucky, pieces of Juicy Fruit gum nicely. It does NOT, however, hold all fifteen remaining sticks (equaling three packages Mom had left from a Bunco dollar prize) of gum. Furthermore, Mom is not pleased to have to chase down said toddler to remove the sticky, saliva-soaked wad of gum. Maybe the slogan was right and the taste moved him...

Apparently gender neutrality does not apply to first sons and pink nail polish

One morning I pulled out the nail polish and gave a nice shiny new coat to my toenails, and Waverly and Irelynd’s feet and hands. Brighton begged and begged to have his nails painted too. My insistence of “boys don’t paint their nails” fell upon deaf ears. So, until he either picks it off or Scott gets the nail polish remover, Brighton is sporting pink, Pepto Bismal nails.

Neccessity is the Mother of Invention...

Savannah rigged this method of transportation up for Brighton, so they could both accompany me to get the mail in style, neither of them having to walk. I was too lazy to pull out the twins’ carseats, double stroller, and everything that set-up entails. So they rode tandem in Brighton’s old stroller. We did get a few odd looks on our way around the block, which I chose to ignore.

Luckily it's washable...

When explaining to a two-year-old, be PRECISE

We had our good friends Dave and Alyssa Bentley over for dinner on Saturday night. Brighton and their son, Wyatt, spent the first two hours in a turf war before they finally decided to be friends. I shot their picture right before Brighton went to bed. The instructions I gave him were to put his arm around Wyatt’s neck. After a moment's hesitation, this is what he interpreted that to mean…

After some more clear instruction, he got it right. Hopefully these two will learn to be as good of friends as their mothers are!

I spy...

Last Friday we went as a family to the Walter Wick exhibit at BYU’s Museum of Art (thanks for the heads-up Sallie!) This was our first outing with all the kids, not counting church or Grandma’s house, since Christmastime. But it was a success! The girls loved the museum, and are already planning on going back in the summer without little brothers or sisters. They loved to find the hidden items in each photograph. Brighton’s favorite, however, was the one with the “shubble”. Scott assured him we would see it again on the way out, and Brighton kept repeating this promise until we finally left. Can you find a red shovel in this picture???

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Busy Brighton is back to business!

It has really been a week of discovery for Brighton and I. I have been congratulating myself this past month, as it seemed like Brighton had FINALLY decided that crime didn’t pay. Well, he may have decided it didn’t pay, but it was too much fun! His latest antics this week are nothing compared to the messes he used to conjure up, but they did require some clean-up. This is what we both discovered this week:
1. Magic erasers do not magically get permanent black marker off the walls, tables, or other surfaces. It is even less effective on berber carpet.

2. Toilet paper in a sink full of water does dissolve very efficiently, but not enough to actually go down the drain, making a mushy, cold, wet and disgusting thing to fish out by hand.

3. Lastly, big sisters do not appreciate having their pom-poms trimmed by little brothers.

Today's chemistry lesson: yeast + saliva = glue

Today Brighton made a discovery. While looking for a snack, or a popsicle, whichever he happened upon first, he found some sticks of butter and the yeast in the fridge. He’s found it before, and played in it, sand-castle-style, but today he decided to taste it. I found him whimpering in the kitchen, foaming out the mouth, mouth glued firmly shut. It took several cups of water and a wet washrag to unglue his mouth and stop the whimpering, but we finally removed all the yeast. It was worth the clean up just to see the look on his face when he realized that yeast in bread is good, yeast alone, not so much. I don’t think this little adventurer will be trying that again…

Draper Temple open house

We went to the Draper Temple open house on Thursday. We just took Savannah and Irelynd, and Grandma LeBaron kept the three youngest. As we were pulling into the church parking lot to start the tour, we got rear-ended by a guy on a cell phone. As we got out to inspect the damage, I had to remind myself of where we were going and be Christian about it. Luckily, there was no damage to the bumper; those things must be made of space-age material!
We all enjoyed the experience of going through. The girls were most impressed with the celestial room; it was quite impressive, with it’s estimated five-story high ceilings and massive chandelier. I was impressed with the fact that all the exterior stone was imported from China, the interior stone from France, and the dark woods throughout from Africa.
After leaving the temple we grabbed a late lunch at Pizza Factory. While waiting for our pizza, we played a Q&A game. We learned some interesting stuff about one another: Savannah would rather have 5 dogs instead of 2 billion dollars; Scott would rather be run over by a train than eaten by sharks; Irelynd would rather meet Hannah Montana than Miley Cyrus; and Mom would rather have $100 than 100 pairs of high heels (much to Savannah’s surprise, as she is to shoes what Tammy Faye Baker was to mascara). It was a great day, just the four of us. I’m hoping the Spirit of the temple soaked into my girls’ minds and hearts and strengthened their testimonies on some level, though they are not ones to openly discuss spiritual matters (too much like their parents, I suppose).

Princess of the Opera

Savannah’s school put on a program, “Opera by Children” this week. Her class wrote the lyrics, choreographed it, and painted the set for their opera. It was cute, and we enjoyed it. Savannah loves theater and song and dance. We’re excited to see where she will take this talent of hers in the future.