Date Night

As I am typing this I have Lady Antebellum song, "I don't know why you don't take me downtown anymore" repeating in my head.

I absolutely love having kids. Wouldn't change it for the world. But I do understand why people say its important to date your spouse still. I miss my one on one time with Russ.
Its so fun when you take the time to get away and remember what its like just the two of you.

Russ's very best friend, and Lila official/unofficial Godfather got married.
We are so happy for him and absolutely love his new wife.

We had a day long date for their festivities and it was such a great time.
And just for my records, to remind myself of this uncomfortable moment...I had one job. One stinkin job for this beautiful wedding day. I was to stay back with the couple (They rented out a top floor room of the Energy Solutions Building with a beautiful view!) and let them know when everyone had lit their sparklers and their ride was ready.
Well what someone didn't tell me, was that someone took their keys to go put stuff in their car and hadn't come back.
So a very anti climatic moment...I send the bride and groom out for their big send off, everyone waves their sparklers and wishes them well, and they had nowhere to go because the dang keys were gone!

Oh well. They didnt seem to remember when I shamelessly apologized the next time I saw them.It was still a beautiful day and evening and we are so happy for them!

Fair

One of my most favorite things in this entire world is the state fair.

My Grandpa Kemp and all of my cousins would go every year! My Grandpa would always buy me a Navajo taco and we would walk every square inch of that fair ground.

I literally look forward to it every year. And since Russ wouldn't let me take Lila as a newborn ( He thinks its too ghetto and dirty to take a new born.  I had to remind him that my  niece ate a piece of someone elses bacon off the fair ground cement before any of us could stop her and she turned out just fine!).

This particular year it had rained all day. I was feeling pretty crappy with my morning sickness but of course still wanted to go!!

I got lila all dressed in her fair clothes and cowgirl boots and we wished and wished the rain would go away and it did!

 

 

It wouldn't be the fair without starting it off right with fair food with cousins.

Heres my cousin Garrett with Lila.

 

Because I wasn't feeling well, I opted for a rather plain dish of chicken and rice, while Russ went all out with this donut burger. Russ never disappoints when it comes to eating at the fair- partly why I love him so much.

 

We love surprises! Like running into our sister in law from Russ's side!

Shes so fun.

 

These little cowgirl boots kill me.

 

 

 

I decided whether I lose my cookies or not, I cant go to the fair without going down the big yellow slide, especially the first time as a family!!

Lilas first time on the big yellow slide.

Ignore my really annoying laugh. I was borderline scared/ incredibly happy for her.

 

 



 

Russ humors me with rides, I humor him with outdoor booths.

This is a look of a little girls first time to the fair, with fair food in her belly, and way past her bedtime. We are going to keep her.

 

PS- I don't know if its just because she is at the fair, but this picture looks just like me as a child :)

Emergency Room- Take 2

With the end of summer, comes the worst time of the year...for me. Hunting season.
With me feeling better, Russ left on his first hunting outing.
I decided to go up and visit my brother in Idaho for the weekend while Russ was gone.
We had a great time as usual- I broke the news to them of TWINS because I started getting a bit sick up there and its hard to hide when you're running into the bathroom every couple of hours.
One of the nights while we were asleep, Lila started breathing funny. I wondered if she was allergic to something in the room we were in because she had been fine all day and the night before.
It got worse and worse so I got her out of her pack and play to prop her up in bed with me.
I didn't sleep at all. The next morning was a really cold one- my Dad (my parents were up there as well) wrapped her up in blankets and took her out to sit on the front porch.
She came in and I couldn't keep her awake, despite all of her cousins running around and wanting to play.
My brother picked her up and she instantly fell asleep in his arms- NOT a Lila characteristic. She hates being held when she is tired and she is not a snuggler.

We decided to head out and get her home since we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us.

I sat in back with her and she wouldn't open her eyes or focus on me.

It was cold so I had her in flannel pjs. I touched her forehead and she was on fire.

We pulled over and I got her out of her pjs to cool off and get her some fluids.

She was trying to cry but nothing was coming out so I was starting to get super worried- we were still about 3 hours away from home.

My Dad held her outside while I ran into a gas station to get her more fluids besides milk.

We got home and they had a birthday party for one of my other nieces and nephews they had already committed to so they dropped me off at home and I tried to get a hold of Russ.

Because he is generally in the middle of them mountains I can never get a hold of him. Thankfully, his buddy he was with was called to a church meeting so they left earlier than they had planned and he was on his way home.

She was still burning up, I took her temperature and it was 105. She wasn't waking up, she was drooling more than usual and when she did wake up, she was just try and cry and then fall back asleep.

I told Russ and he told me to call his sister who is an ER nurse while he sped home.

I called her and after hearing her symptoms she told us to take her to the ER.

By the time Russ got home we rushed right out and by then she was at 106 and we couldn't get it to go down. I had given her meds and stuck her under our room fan and nothing was helping.

Lila loves her Dad so so much, and when he got home and she couldn't even look at him I think it scared him as much as it had been scaring me.

We got to the emergency room and there were so many people in there it made me panic. Luckily they take those they think that are more of an emergency back first so they took her back instantly since she wasn't really responsive.

She had croup, but they think her temperature went up too high, too fast and that's what they were most worried about. They gave her some more meds and we did a breathing treatment and chest xrays and after a few hours we were able to bring her home.

We are paranoid first parents and have heard nightmare stories of babies in beds with parents and them rolling on them, so we put her in her crib and we took turns sleeping on the floor next to her crib.

Luckily the steroid or whatever they gave her bounced her back pretty quick and she was better a couple days later! So scary and sad seeing your kids sick!

End of Summer

To bid our farewell to summer, we went up to Sundance to walk around and enjoy the outdoors before we were cooped up all winter.
It was a beautiful day!

 

We sat on this little patio forever, looking at the fish and people watching.

I always keep my eyes peeled for Robert Redford thinking he HAS to just be enjoying his land like we are, but I never see him ;)

 

It was the last day the snow shack would be there for the season so we stopped on our way home and shared this teeny tiny snow cone ;)

I was super embarrassed when they called our name and saw this beast- but we did a decent job as a family pounding that down.

Summer is too fun- why does it have to go so fast?

My Girl

Everyone always ask me what I'm most scared of to have to twins.
Besides not being able to EVER go out on my own for the first little bit ( how do you carry TWO infant car seats and a 20 month old?) I am most scared about losing my time with Lila.
I LOVE spending my days with her. I have lost so many nights of sleep wondering if she is just too small to understand that I wont be able to play and read books with her all day like we do now.
She loves to look at books and we spend so much time reading books and going to the library and making things in her play kitchen, and it breaks my heart to think I am abandoning her. I don't know how I can nurse 2 babies at the same time with how time consuming it is with ONE and still feel like I am giving enough time and energy to Lila.
She is an EXCELLENT baby and I don't want her to digress.
Someone once told me the best gift you could ever get your child is a sibling. And I thought about how I cant imagine my life with brother and sister and how close we are.
I know we will be fine, but Im a little apprehensive about the adjustment.
Shes my best bud.

Side note- she LOVES to ride on her dads back like this. They do it every day :)

 

One day our babysitter called and said Lila was super fussy, and she didn't think she was feeling well.

I asked if I should leave work (I only work 2 days a week so I always feel bad when I tell my boss I have to leave, but of course I would leave if my child was sick!)

She told she thought I should.

I came and got her, brought her home and she was full of energy- I think she knew I just needed extra alone time with her :) Totally worth leaving.

Under the Sea

Once I started feeling a bit better, Lila and I started venturing out more.
It felt SO good to be upright and off of the couch!
We were nearing colder weather so we took advantage of the mountains a few times!
One night, we met up with our good friends Linds and Dave and their son for dinner and dessert around the fire.

 

Nothing better than sitting around the campfire with my 2 girls!

 One of my all time favorite pictures of Russ and Lila.

We went to lunch with my friend Angi and her son Tyce and daughter Jada. I think Tyce and Lila were flirting :)

 

Nothing says flirting like a little belly roll hanging over your pants.

We also spent a day with a few of my friends (Im so sad I didn't get a picture of everyone!) and our kids. We ran into a guy we went to high school with and he had his son that was Lilas age that was terminally ill with Cancer. They were taking him out and letting him enjoy as much of life as he could before he passed. It made me super emotional, and so sad that kids, let alone babies have to go through that. I thought they were excellent parents for taking him out to see as much of the world as possible. He passed away about a month later.

 As we were admiring this big guy he got super aggressive and started hitting the glass and running away. It kind of scared me a bit and the lady that worked for the zoo said it was no big deal, he just didn't like being looked at. My heart BROKE! This poor guy's life is being stared at every day through glass and he hated it :(

It kind of changed my mind on the zoo a bit.

 

I carpooled with Linds. We got back to her house and I had lasted as long as I could before throwing up in her drive way. I decided I should probably tell her I was pregnant- I kept the twins thing a secret still. We still hadn't told people!

We also spent the day a the aquarium with my friend Mel and her daughter that is Lilas same age!

From what I hear this place is usually crowded. We hit it once school had started back and right during the penguin feeding so we had this amazing tunnel all to ourselves!

That night we celebrated Russ getting his braces off! I asked him what he wanted for a brace-free dinner. He said he wanted snickers and a sandwich. I made him snickers salad and we went to one of our favorite local restaurants for his all time favorite Shrip Po Boy :)

 

He looks SO good!