A busy week . . .

So . . .we have been busy! Sunday we planned to just take a nice drive up the canyon, but ended up getting out and the boys just loved it. They spent no less than 20 minutes just throwing rocks, were fascinated by the people fishing, and then headed up a hiking trail with no reservation. They were so happy to be outside (rain had limited what we were able to do last week--which also led to a disastrous trip to the dino museum, let's just say 7 buses of school field trips plus my 2 very loud disobedient children in a confined space did not go well.) and it has convinced me that they are ready for camping and hiking. It is in their blood after all and has been severely curtailed these past couple of years, the last real camp out we had I was 6 months preggo. So now I have all sorts of plans, but Lowell wants to test the munchkins out in our tent in the backyard first. Then, I want to hike Stewart Falls and spend the night at the Timpanooke camp leading up to my real goal for this summer, Yellowstone! We'll see if it pans out and even more if we will be hoofing it in a tent (the true way of course, hey I earned my scout name as a teen, "Iron Maiden"!--I got it by climbing Half Dome in Yosemite, I am no woosy girl!) or go Lowell's way and stay in my bro's timeshare (yeah I guess there is something for separate rooms, a kitchen, and a shower, but where's the fun?). I worry considerably about the munchkins near the hot pots, etc. but there is plenty more to do than that and I think a lot of taking about it and little bit of their "leashes" will help ;).
Also this week my darling sister Hillary is home from college and has been a doll to go take the boys on adventures with me. Yesterday was the zoo, as usual the train was a big hit, and then the children's garden with my mom--the fountains are on hurray!, and then today to the big gardens for a nice walk. They have been surprisingly good, dare I say it out loud? I think my melt-down following the last visit to the dino museum may have hit a cord with them. The week is just getting started though. Tomorrow, I turn 28, yep old fogey town here I come (Lowell will be 30 this year, haha on him) then Friday the fam starts to arrive for BJ's wedding on Saturday. The whole wedding day is booked solid, from the sealing, to the lunch, to naps at my house, to the garden tour and family photo shoot, to dinner at my house for those whose kids don't do well at restaurants (mine!), and finally the reception. Gonna be kind of crazy and the number of clothing changes my boys will need (they are "ring bearers", pics to come!) and how long they will have to be happy and clean should prove interesting. Good thing they have gotten a chance to get some wiggles out already this week. The lovely Aunt Dinda will be watching them tomorrow while Lowell and I go out and I am sure that will help with wiggles too--they wear her out but she is so good at playing with them. That reminds me that we also went to a baby blessing on Saturday, my cousin Josh and his wife Valerie added new darling boy Eli to their family which includes big brother Noah. Josh is graduating this weekend from medical school in California, so congrats (and a box of See's chocolate) to him! I was on call for Memorial Day which was nuts too, back and forth a lot and trying to coordinate wedding plans with my mom and get some sale shopping in (continuation from Saturday). Anyway, yep we've been busy and we are going to continue to be for a couple more days. Then hopefully a cool down. I'll keep you posted :).

Some funnies and something not so funny

So I will start with the not so funny, mothers of the world be warned--my little Carter got his finger smashed in our automatic van door today. The front has a sensor to prevent this, but the back part of the door does not. I have actually worried about this before today and have always warned the boys to not touch the door as it was closing, but alas sometimes they learn for themselves. Today after dropping off the dogs at the groomers we decided to go have breakfast at Carl's Jr (i.e. go play at the PlayPlace while there is no one there!). I hate going into restaurants by myself though, the whole challenge of herding my not so obedient children across a parking lot and through the dining area. Anyway, I had them both out of their seats and had my eye on Davis who was closer to the road when I turned around to see Carter just before the door completely closed and locked on his little thumb. I got it open pretty fast but of course it looked really angry! I debated my next step, drag a screaming Davis back into the car and skip play time or carry a screaming injured Carter through the restaurant. I thought playing may cheer Carter up so I chose the latter. We had a good snuggle and I inspected the finger as best I could finding no blood and just a lot of swelling. He recovered pretty quickly and did go and play but I still took him for a Daddy check-up to be sure he didn't need a doctor. Lowell is better at being the meany, he bent the finger and felt it all over (much to Carter's discontentment) and deemed it well bruised but not broken (a big whew from me!). So we went to the gardens and played some more and other than a few "Daddy ow, Daddy ouch, and car ouch [Me: yes, car big ouch], C: Car big big big ouch" he seems to have survived it. Wow, I sure dramatized our day here, let's just say it seemed pretty dramatic at the time.
On to some funnies.
Davis the chef. So Big D has been taking an interest in eggs this week. I let him help me crack and pour some eggs into a pan for breakfast (followed by a good handwashing and plenty of shell clean-up) and he thought that was pretty cool. So the other afternoon Lowell realized the boys were being much too quiet (you know it's trouble!). On approach he found 2 broken eggs and readied himself for trouble but instead found Davis with Carter watching on working on his little plate of eggs. He had cracked 6 or so eggs and thrown the shells away and now was mixing them on the plate with a fork. Too bad Lowell couldn't find the camera in time, my little budding chef!
Manners
So we have worked for some time on manners with the boys and they are actually quite proficient. They throw out plenty of pleases and thank yous, sorrys and even excuse me's (it seems to carry less weight when a forced burp is followed by excuse me and then laughter, but oh well) but they have found a way this week to take it too far. "No, thank you". Me: Let's take a bath, C&D: No, thank you. Me: It's time for bed C&D: No, thank you. It's hard when they are being so polite, but some times it still doesn't fly (I still think it is cute though). Oh and one thing with manners that I LOVE that they learned and it is a great lesson for other twin moms is trading. One day I told them they couldn't just take a toy, they have to trade it for something they have and amazingly they have really picked it up. D: Here Tarter (handing Happy Meal toy--blast it I got 2 different ones!) C: (thinks it over) Here Dadis. Of course it isn't always great, they don't always trade evenly and then are unhappy when the tradee is not willing to complete the transaction. It also usually does not end well for me D: Here Mama (totally melted narly popsicle) Me: Here Davis (pristine and lovely popsicle gone, oh well, I have learned to eat when they are asleep!).
So there is your snippet of Carter and Davis for the day, I hope you have enjoyed ;). I am ready to rest! though I still need to work on tying ribbons on favors for my brother's wedding in a week, after working feverishly on their video for the last 2 days. Ugh! I'll be glad when the wedding is past and we can move on to summer and more of the joys of potty training (work in progress :)!). Happy weekend all!

"The spider is sweeking"

Well, being all boy as my boys are, they have a fascination with bugs. Any time they see one they just hit the deck to be face the face with whatever it is. They particular like spiders and ants, which they call spiders. Also "snakes" what they call worms. With the weather finally warming up they have been all over the bugs in our yard. Unfortunately for the bugs, the boys fascination is not always gentle. I think they are figuring out how bugs work, but in the process and just squishing a bunch of them. I keep trying to stop them and talk about being nice and gentle, but alas some still do not survive. The other day I was sitting with Davis looking at a spider who no longer had any legs and I told him he needed to be nice, now the spider was dead. He said, "no spider in bed, he's sweeking (sleeping)". Be warned spiders of the world, Davis may put you to "sweek".
Walking through Target the other day the boys discovered 99 cent water guns. I have been some what avoiding guns but they do turn everything into guns so I figured why not. Oh my how they love them! They sat nicely all through the store saying Beew Beew. In fact they do not call them guns, they call them beew. We have 2 rules for the Beews, no playing in the house and no squirting Mommy. They have done really well with that, running around the back yard squirting the plants and the dogs but surprisingly noth each other. Though I did notice their friends Andrew and Anthony left play date with wet heads, sorry boys! We made a repeat visit last night and used some of their moneys from the playset to get a pool, a slip and slide, and more beews, plenty of water fun to come!
This week the boys came down with some pretty good fevers and sore throats. A visit to the doctor revealed no ear infection or strep ($50 in copays later!) so we have just been waiting it out. They have been pretty ornery at times but really not too bad, they are still eating and playing so I guess that is what counts. They are just more needy which I don't mind, I love the snuggles! The other night Davis asked to be "baby" which means he wants to be wrapped in a blanket and held. Well, Carter wanted to be also but didn't want to share so he told me, "I'm the tute (cute) baby!" Somedays they just kill me!
So there are some CarterDavis(what they call them at the gym)-ism for the week. We haven't gotten to have quite as many adventures as usual due to illness but we did make it to the gardens and have our twin play group, so that was fun. Lowell got our garden in yesterday so we are already anxiously anticipating our fall bounty, I love fresh fruit and veggies! The bubs and I planted some seeds and have been watching them grow, I would love to see them produce so the boys get the full experience from seed to consumption. So far so good.
In my world, the week has been pretty crazy as some changes have come down at work resulting in my supervisor not returning to work. The vacancy is yet to be filled and leaves a lot of questions about who will fill it, how schedules will change, etc. Here's hoping it is a smooth transition and that all goes well for my now previous supervisor (of 6 years) who I cared for deeply.
I think that is all there is to share from the Penrod world this week, stay tuned next week for more crazy antics ;).

Happy Mother's Day to Me!

Well, of course the best mother's day gift I will ever receive are the super-handsome lads pictured above. It doesn't hurt that they are being nice to each other in the shot either (a picture today would show a nice set of teeth marks on Davis'left cheek, arrgh! I hate biting!). 3 years ago on Mother's Day was a day I will never forget. I was almost 13 weeks pregnant and finally let some of the nurses at work know that I was pregnant. Working in a lab and seeing a lot of sad things I was very cautious for the first trimester. Truthfully I was still convinced there wasn't actually a baby in there, my guess, blighted ovum. So Marnae my darling nurse friend set out to prove me wrong with an ultrasound. I was so nervous to just see a heartbeat and then amazingly she found the right spot and there THEY were. Two perfect little hearts beating away, there was no disputing it, I was having twins. I called Lowell and told him I had an ultrasound and asked if he was sitting down, he was sure it was bad news so was doubly exicted when I told him, nope it's twins! Silly boy had cursed me with them though, he insisted from early on that there was two in there when I was certain he was wrong. I was guessing one girl! He just had never seen anyone so sick and was sure there was a good reason for it. I, on the other hand, had seen people with just one be that sick and had seen my quantative HCG results that were not indicative of twins. Anyway, he was right all the puking was 2 little gremlins in their, he came down to see them and our love affair with our 2 boys began, on a special Mother's Day 3 years ago.
This year the Saturday before Mother's Day I scheduled myself a spa day. I, along with my MIL and SIL went and had massages at the massage school and yes it really was fantastic, then I met up with my mom and sisters and had pedicures and then a fantastic lunch at the gardens. It was seriously the most relaxing and delightful day. Ahhhh Then Sunday Lowell made me a wonderful breakfast, I made handprints with my nursery class, and then we had a really good dinner with Lowell's whole fam and I had 2 desserts! And most of a watermelon (okay, Davis helped). It was a good day. Oh and Lowell and the boys made me new aprons with their handprints on it, thanks hon! He also watched the monkeys and allowed for me spa day and treats me like a queen everyday, what a great hubby!
So I very rarely take any pictures of myself, I am always on the other side of the camera, but here is one, albeit a little old.

I have been tagged by Jillian to describe my family using the letters of their middle names, so here goes!

Me

L Listener

E Encouraging

E Engaging

Lowell (he is William Lowell)

L Loveable

O Open

W Willing to help

E Exceptional

L Listener

L (man we have a lot of Ls!) Loving

Davis (William Davis)

D Determined

A Athletic

V Very sweet

I Intelligent

S Silly!

Carter

L Little ("I widdle")

O Outstanding climber

W Willing to hug and comfort

E Excited

L Leaping Lizard

L Loveable

Okay, so there are some repeats in there, too bad! I tag Stephanie and Amber if they happen to read this ;)

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in my life, I have been blessed with many good examples and am grateful for them all

Me

A post about Daddy . . .

Wow, aren't my 0 blog readers lucky, 3 posts in 3 shifts at work! And I even have new TV I could be watching online. Feel lucky! I just saw this on my friend Jillian's site (super mom of triplets, seriously never feel sorry for yourself because someone always has it worse, I have even heard of a woman with blind/deaf triplets, yea I'll take my healthy 2 thank you!) So here is some info on my seriously handsome husband Lowell:
1.What is his name? William Lowell Penrod, after his grandfather who also went by Lowell. The boys are Carter Lowell and William Davis, so both named after daddy but neither uses his name.
2. Who eats more? At a buffet, me, I just have to get my money's worth even if I am sick, but day to day, probably Lowell.
3. Who said I love you first? Me--Lowell made me, he knew I was going to say it but made me say it first.
4. Who is taller? Lowell
5. Who is smarter? Probably me, unless you are talking about anything involving common sense, then Lowell.
6. Who is more sensitive? Tough one, Lowell would not like people to know it, but he really has a soft under belly. He cries more than me, mostly about spiritual matters. He is very aware of the boys and their feelings and surprisingly concerned about our dogs and even bugs (except for flies who if they enter his house must be obliterated).
7. Who does the laundry? Lowell, no kidding. Also the bathrooms--I know you're jealous!
8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me.
9. Who pays the bills? We divide and conquer on that one.
10. Who cooks more? Me.
11. What meals do you cook together? Sunday dinner, Lowell is great at mashed potatoes.
12. Who is more stubborn? I'd say me, but Lowell would probably say him. I am Dutch and he is Irish, so yea, whenever the bubs break down we just have to take a breath and recognize we screwed them with our Dutch/Irish genes.
13. Who is the first to admit they're wrong? That would imply that I've been wrong before....hahaha. No, actually my problem is more along the lines of feeling like I'm wrong a lot of the time, not insisting that I'm right.
14. Who is more clean? Lowell, definitely.
15. Who has more siblings? Me, 5 in my fam and 4 in Lowell's.
16. Who wears the pants in the relationship? Equal partners, we both work full-time and watch the boys full-time so we really do work together.
17. What do you like to do together? We play with the munckins of course, we like to travel, eat good food, discuss TV and books, see movies, and watch our TV shows after the boys are down (yea for Lost!).
18. Who eats more sweets? Yea that'd be me, like my dad who I take after would say, I don't have a sweet tooth, I have sweet teeth!
19. Guilty pleasures? Dr Pepper, Guitar Hero or anything on his Xbox 360 which he never has time to play, gas station hot dogs, gardening, comic book movies.
20. How did you meet? Lowell went to Jr High with my cousin who set us up because she was bored one day. I was waiting for a missionary who was due home in a couple of months but thought it would be fun to get out and well, the rest is history (for the record, my missionary got married before Lowell and I)
21. Who asked who out first? After our first blind date, my cousin Whitney played phone tag between us and Lowell said he wanted to come see Leukemia under the microscope in my lab. I joked with my classmates that I was going to marry him for that and it turns out I did! I also showed him sperm on a slide just to be stupid, such a cool 2nd date ;p
22. Who kissed who first? Lowell kissed me after I waited an hour for him to hold my hand after giving all the "obvious" signs. Sheesh! All while watching Undercover Blues, funny show.
23. Who proposed? Lowell did and I just said, Are you serious? So he was going to take it back, but I talked him into it ;). He proposed with the ring again later with a cute little rhyme, I want to wake up next to you every day for the rest of my life, so will you be my wife? Ahhh!
24. His best features? Hmmm . . .G-rated eyes, smile, and dimple. Not G-rated, well his butt for starters ;).
25. What is his greatest quality? He takes excellent care of me and the boys. He really is an outstanding father and husband. I brag about him all the time, I really don't know how I got so lucky. He cleans, he is an active-hands on father, he is very caring toward me and the boys, he has just taken on his role in our family so completely, well what can I say, he is awesome!

So there you go, some info on my darling Lowell, I love you honey!

Free prints and photo book!

Hi all-

Old pic, yes but looking through photos to get some free stuff brought this one back up and I just had to share it. I love this shot. It's funny at the time of this shoot I didn't think many of the pictures turned out great but now I just love them. I guess sometimes you need time to look back and remember how darling they used to be (and still are). Thanks to the sweet BYU student who did this photo free for us as part of a project on twins. I really need to do something like that again! I just found out my sis Hillary who now works at Thanksgiving Point can have photos done in the gardens without the extra fees. Before the summer is out I am so jumping on that one! Anyway back to the point of my post (what, they have a point . . .?) I found a new photo website (thanks Reva!) that is giving away a lot of free stuff right now as they are getting started. It is www.artscow.com and you can get 400 free prints right now (200 4x6 and 200 5x7) and a free 8x8 photo book. I already joined and the credits are in my account. It is a limited time deal though so I am posting so everyone can grab these deals whilst they last. They are also running a special that if you spend $30 you get another free photo book and a free calendar. So I did that too and it took surprisingly a lot to get to $30 since there was 50% off non-print items. So I got 4 photo necklaces and a framed photo tile for $33 with shipping and the extra bonuses are already credited. Yea for me! Of course I openly admit I have not used this site, I do not know of its quality. Shipping seemed a little long and pricey but overall the deal is still outstanding. So, if I haven't already emailed you, go check it out! I am such a sucker for photo sites, I spend a lot of time on them. I am also a sucker for a deal, seriously if you are looking for a sale, give me a shout and I will find you the best price. Just one of the joys of having free time at work. Okay, back to said free time I really need to lay down and shake this tired-headache. Love to all!

Brothers!

Oh the fun of being brothers! We went to the park today as we had a brief warm spell (gone tomorrow) and I just had to laugh. I taught the bubs a new game called, "chase the butterfly". It involves them running all over the fully enclosed park trying to catch the bugs but never achieving their goal. I however achieve my goal of wearing them out! Anyway, they saw each other across the field and went running (slow motion romance movie moment) to each other and then had a big hug and fell on the ground laughing. It does this mommy heart good. They actually do this quite often, any time they are away from each other for a little while, like when we go to the zoo or gardens and one is with each parent and then meet back up. They really do love each other. They are also amazing climbers, every time we go to the park they find something else to do that they couldn't before (and a new way to scare mommmy!). Today was climbing this piece of equipment that I can't describe but that each rung is as tall as them and they climbed up all 4 to the top and then circled around occasionally hanging and swinging from a bar up there. Last week it was the climbing wall, seriously I don't think I could have done it but in their bare feet they each did it several times. I guess it is time to go spelunking and mountain climbing, oh wait, they are only 2! Fuel for my fire to get them in gymnastics this fall. Lowell thinks it is a girly sport but I used to go to the men's gymnastics meets at BYU and those guys are buff! I think it would be a great way to burn some energy in the cold months, use as an incentive for potty training, and begin my future olympians training. ;)

Lowell and I (thanks to my wonderful sisters) got to go see Iron Man yesterday. Lowell was very excited, he is quite the comic buff. Okay, not a buff of Iron Man really but he likes the genre. And somehow he'll spin it as a romantic comedy so it counts as my turn to pick the movie! LOL I can't remember the last time we actually watched a romantic comedy (rented The Lake House on our overnight the other week, but nope didn't watch it) but I don't really mind. I actually like the action flicks and I watch all the others at night at work. I am a fan of Robert Downey Jr. besides, so that part was fun. And I really liked the last couple of minutes if you have seen it.

That's all for now. Cyndel my darling youngest sis took some cute shots of the boys I'll get uploaded someday. They got their hair cut and they look all clean and dapper. Getting ready for my brother BJ's wedding in a couple of weeks (mixed reviews on that one, but that's another story altogther . . .)Loves!

Pieces of Spring . . .

One of these things is not like the other ones, one of these things just isn't the same. Can you guess which one? Yup it is the snow 0n my grass in May! Okay perhaps I am a little overdramatic about the delay of Spring, it is Utah after all and we almost always have some snow in April, but c'mon it's May already and we are ready to PLAY! At this rate we are going to skip spring altogether and go right on to summer which is such a disappointment as I LOVE spring and the heat of summer actually limits play time as well. At least the days are getting longer . . .and in case you want to know, the snow totally ruined the pink blossoms on our flowering cherry and isn't helping the seeds I planted for the twin play group this month !

Well, besides complaining about the weather, what else have we been up to? Our usual busy-ness and running around. We caught the Baby Animal birthday party which turned out to be quite wet and soggy (still complaining) and the boys just did not do well with the crowd. It is usually not very busy at farm country and they were overwhelmed by all the people. We did see all the babies up closer than usual, enjoyed birthday cake, and played a few party games. We also caught the last day of the tulip fesitval and have been back since of course and the tulips are finally looking fantastic. I'll have to remember my camera next time, it is breath-taking right now at the gardens. The munchkins got lots of wiggles out running around as well since Daddy came (I don't dare let them loose on my own!). We also paid a visit to "nemo" at the aquarium which is always a hit. The bubs haven't been in a month and were happy to run and visit all their "friends". Yesterday I went to 2 baby showers, congrats to Erin (baby Madeline due 6/22) and Jordan (baby Eden due 6/19) so the boys got extra playtime outside with Dad and rounded out the day with some ice cream. I gave each of the gals at the showers a "few of my favorite things" which I will share here in case anyone wants to know. These are the things I could not live without the first year of the boys' life.

1. Lanolin--the kiddos were NOT good latchers and struggled to eat for 2 weeks in the NICU as 34 weekers. I pressed on just to get them out of the hospital but didn't work on form enough I think as it hurt to breastfeed for a long time. The nipple blisters almost did me in toward the end, but I pushed along nursing both kids until 18 months. Despite the complaints I am a major proponent of breastfeeding if you can and really did nurse that long because I enjoyed it as much as the boys. Anyway lanolin and nipple shields got me through the rough patches.

2. Stretchy swaddling blankets--these are really cheap actually 1.29 at Macey's but they have elastic going in one direction so you can stretch the blanket around the baby and swaddle them quite snugly. We had plenty of fancy blankies but swore by these cheapies, hey it worked!

3. Mylicon gas drops--man I wish I had figured out sooner that all the fussing was just gas!

4. Mesh Safety Feeders--These look a little like over-sized pacifiers except with mesh sacs on the end that you can fill with fruit or biter biscuits or whatever and the kids won't choke on them as the mesh is so tight that only little bits get through. You can also put frozen fruit in for teething woes, but we mostly loaded them with fruit and let the boys go at it. They were always content for several minutes this way and the mess was worth it.

5. Onesies--Such a standard part of any wardrobe but I do seriously swear by them and my boys still wear one every day (and at night). As little guys it helped protect their outer clothing from messes and now it keeps them from getting into their diapers and making messes. It also gives an extra layer on warmth and just makes them look all dapper to me.

6. The following article: http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-851-37,00.html For those who don't know, I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as the LDS or mormon church. This was a talk at our latest conference by an apostle about young mothers. It meant a lot to me because oddly I needed an apostle of God to tell me, yes parenting is hard and it is okay to think that. He also talked about ways to enjoy your young children so I shared this article with the new moms as well.

So that plus a diaper bag is what went to the showers this weekend. Other favorite things of note: sleep sacks, disposable bottle liners, sound machines, and lots of toys!

Well, back to work I go, hoorah hoorah! I really need a nap today, I have stayed up much too late this whole weekend. I got most of my work chores done yesterday and already read my church articles for the day so except for a few ebay auctions I am watching I should be able to rest.

Love to all!