The joys of twins.

Twins are hard. I am not going to lie. Twice the diapers, twice the crying and screaming, twice as long when you get up at night and the list could go on. But we also get twice the happiness. I just love my girls and now that they are getting older and are more aware of their surroundings they are getting to be so much fun.

I love how they interact with each other lately. When they lay by each other they wiggle to get closer, they love to be touching or holding hands. I put them on their stomachs the other day and they were so cute. They would take turns coo-ing, squealing and laughing.



Then they would copy each other. If one put their head down the other would, then up then down again.



They have been loving toys lately.

I scored another bumbo on craigslist. Hooray! They do the same thing in their bumbos. Sometimes we put them side by side and they hold hands, other time looking at each other and they "talk" and smile.

I sat them in their bumbos last night to feed them their solids and said how glad I was to have two because it makes feeding them so much more efficient. He started laughing so I asked why. He pointed out, how many people say that about doing simple tasks with their singleton (multiple mama speak for one) babies? I think it is kind of true, I know even when I had only one at a time I still didn't want feedings or baths to take forever because I would rather be doing something fun like snuggling. But when it comes to twins, it is essential! Just by having two bumbos I have cut feeding time in half! For the first eight weeks I couldn't get Elizabeth to properly latch, so I would bf Georgia, pump, then bottle feed Elizabeth. A month in it finally clicked in my head if I fed George and pumped at the same time it would be so much faster! So I went from 1 hour 15 minutes at feeding time to 45 minutes, why didn't I think of it sooner?? Now they both bf and I can tandem about half the time which makes it 10 minutes, or 20 if I do them one at a time. We even have a bath routine down that has been cut from 45 minutes to 15! It involves Ben, so I dread bath time when he is gone:) And the list could go on and on... I know it is lame, but I get so excited when I find a new time saving method! Mostly because it gives me more time to focus on the fun times with my sweet children:)

Mmmmm...

I finally upgraded my camera... and I don't know why I waited so long!!! The difference is just amazing. I am able to shoot at night under my ceiling light and still get a good picture. Never would that have happened before, I had to turn on all the lights and photoshop like crazy- which makes "noise" in the photo (a.k.a. make it grainy).



I was playing with it the other night and it was much easier because Iz was asleep, haha. Much easier to focus when she isn't moving;)


The girls have started solids! So far they have had rice, bananas, sweet potatoes and peas. The older two never really were interested in baby food, and by the time they were they had a full set of teeth. Really. Okay, maybe not a full mouth but they each had their first tooth at 3-4 months and were eating cut food by 8-9 months. Serious.

I have been having fun making my own purees for them. Since the older two didn't really like purees and I was working I didn't go homemade for them. So far I have done bananas, peas, green beans, pumpkin, squash and I have avocado and apples waiting to be made. The fruit makes my house smell good... and the vegetables, not so much, haha. Oh, and I freeze them so I can do it in a bigger batch and not have to cook everyday:)

They get a puree around their noon feeding and then a puree mixed with cereal before bed. In the begining it was only at noon but Izzy still seems hungry after her last feeding of the night so I started doing cereal and she is much happier.

Iz will usually eat two cubes and gobble it all down, sometimes I think she might even go for more... But I don't want to be puked on if I am wrong:)

And Georgie? Well, she has definitely improved but she still will only eat a few bites then she acts like she is gagging. I figure it is easier if I am feeding one to just feed the other too. It is funny how differently they have developed, Georgie is more vocal and smiley and Iz is more physical. She rolls front to back, back to front, is obsessed with her fingers and toes, so I think that may have something to do with her being more ready than George for food. Maybe, maybe not?

Halloween.

Another Halloween come and gone. Abby found a costume in Grandma's bin, I made Jack's costume, and the twins' were Ben's idea.



This was at Abby's school. They did the traditional parade and Jack wanted to dress up too. But then we got there and he didn't want to be there. Oh well.

My little cuties. His hat looks weird... I never did get a good picture of it, but it has a stem and a leaf on top.

Rivals. Ben thought this one up... Probably because then we just wore basketball shorts and t-shirts and were still in a "costume", haha. Like he doesn't wear that everyday:)

Georgie got BYU because her coloring doesn't go great with red or certain shades of pink... so easy decision there:)

Hey, I guess I did get a picture of his hat.

The awesome Laidlaw tradition of pumpkin soup bowls. Awesome.

This was his first haul. Ben and I took all the kids out... and made it through half a block before Elizabeth started to fuss. So he carried her for a bit, then George started to fuss so I quickly walked them back and got them fed while the older ones finished out the block.

Then Abby begged everyone to take her again, and Auntie Rachel and Uncle Brandon were nice enough to do so. They came back with their pumpkins full again... More for Mom and Dad, haha:)

It's my girlies!

http://www.made-by-rae.com/2011/10/pierrot-testing/

Kid's clothes week challenge.

So I am lame and didn't realize my new post tab was set on "edit html" and was getting so mad because I couldn't figure out why my pictures weren't uploading. So, these are from last week...

Last week blog-land of kids clothes sewers they had a thing called "kids clothes week challenge". It is put on by one of the blogs and what it is, is a week where you are supposed to sew something for your kid's wardrobe for one hour each day. I have heard of it before, but never really got into it. Oh, and they do it twice a year. They have a flickr group where everyone posts pictures of their finished products and strangers comment on them and you kind of get a virtual pat on the back, haha. Or inspiration. One of my projects came about because of something I saw in the group.

So on to the projects:

All over pinterest I have been seeing this pop up, it is an up-cycled Men's button down shirt but instead of putting the buttons down the center like you usually see, it is asymetrical.



^^ This is Abby's " I HATE TAKING PICTURES MOM!" moment. ^^

I have been collecting button shirts and t-shirts for a while now. This one I found at Walmart on clearance for $2. I couldn't even buy the fabric for that price, plus the time saved by already having the button placket done for me? Awesome!



I switched out the pearl white buttons for these pink ones I had in my stash and stitched them with yellow thread. I love the look! I really wanted to use my mustard yellow buttons, but I was short by two buttons and I didn't want to go to the store:)

Ugh, my yard is ugly this year. This fabric was my "I don't love it, but it is on clearance... so it can be my test run for my next pattern..." But oh how I love how it turned out. It is so much cuter in person! I don't know how much use Abby will get out of it... she likes to wear pants to school for recess, but maybe since it is getting cooler it wont be bad because she can wear leggings.

I love the "V" in the front!

She was so excited about this top! I think her favorite part was picking out the buttons:)

Next is the project I saw in the fickr pool:

These are Pierrot tunics from made-by-rae. It is the pattern I tested a few weeks back. I made it a size up, lengthened it and left off the ruffle. I like it much better:) Though I would like it longer still. Maybe next time.

Not that anyone will see, but I love that the neckbands are the coordinating print.

I hadn't been keeping up on my blogs so I didn't even hear about it until Thursday and it started on Monday. But it isn't to shabby for three days of sewing! Plus I have a pair of pants that need only ten more minutes of work to be complete. Just imagine if I had started on Monday! They do it in the spring and I plan on being more prepared. Some people say they take the week before and get their projects picked out and cut out so they can do the fun part instead of all the prep work. That would be nice:)

Blessed.

We blessed the girls on Sunday. Food. Family. Beautiful weather. Great day.


Poor Ben was sweating bullets, but he did a great job. He blessed Elizabeth and his dad blessed Georgia. Which is a good thing, because he wanted to start off the second blessing by just saying "ditto". Yeah, that may have been a little irreverent...



Mmmm... I didn't even think of it being fast Sunday, so sorry to all the guests who only got finger food, haha.

The cake balls. I have had so much fun figuring out how to make these. Mostly how to make them smooth, each batch I have improved! ... Luckily there have only been a few batches because they are so addictive to eat!

This is Great Grandpa Laidlaw, and the first time he has held either one of them:)

This is the group of men who stood in the circle, minus Logan.

I can't believe how much they have grown and changed. We went to the NICU reunion the day before and I was looking back through their photos from their time in the NICU. I am so blessed to have two healthy girls with no health problems from being born early. I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for that.

Elizabeth was my little model. She was just so happy this day and I got so many good pictures of her...

... But Georgia not so much. I took these after the get-together, and woke her up to take them. Sorry girlfriend! I should have just let her sleep, but I wanted to get at least one of them together before I undressed Elizabeth. So, I will have to try with George another day.

Who doesn't love baby feet? My Grandma sent me these. I hadn't even thought of what they were going to wear underneath until the night before. Duh. I went to Walmart and Old Navy and neither had tights for babes as small as mine. (Old navy didn't even have tights!) I was frustrated and went through their drawers remembering I had bought 0-9 month tights before they were born. But they wouldn't fit mine if they are supposed to go up to 9 months, right? Wrong. I don't know how they will fit a 9 month old!

The best one of them together. I got Georgie in between a cry.

I thought this was sweet. Usually it is Iz who likes to touch Georgia, but Georgia kept holding on to Izzy's arm.

The dresses. Of course I made them:) I was thinking of making them different, but then I saw my inspiration on Pinterest and loved it so much I knew I had to make them the same.

I was going to draft my own pattern, but finally after days of looking found a 3-6 month pattern. Exactly one. So I decided I liked it enough and made a few in cotton to test the sizing, and to size it down. I was able to size it down to 0-3 month and it worked perfect.

I am beyond happy with how they turned out!!

Since I had my backdrop out I made Abby and Jack take a few too. Made Jack, Abby loved it. Not gonna lie, I bribed a smile out of him with a cake ball. And the next day got him to clean his room for a cake ball. And the next day. And the next day. I need more cake balls, the room is a mess again and he always whines and says "I'm too tired".

I should have complained about lack of sewing time sooner, because after that post I got lots of it in! Well... in comparison to before:) I was on facebook the other day and the amazing Rae from made-by-rae.com was asking for pattern testers for 0-3 and 3-6 month sizes for her new pattern. I have previously mentioned how hard it is to find patterns to sew for the girls so I was so excited to see the 0-3 month size! I volunteered and she picked me, yay:)



Look at what a big smile she has!! I like the top, but it is supposed to be a tunic and as they grow it goes to a top, but it is a little short, so just a top for this one. It was a quick and easy sew, and this picture doesn't do it justice, it is adorable on:)