Being A Stay At Home Mom.

So, I've held this title of "Stay-At-Home Mom" for a little over six months now, and how do I feel about it?

It is truly the best job I've ever had!

I have always grown up knowing that when I had children I was going to stay at home with them just like my mom was able to do for me and my siblings. It made the most sense to me. I am able to do everything with my sweet daughters that I've always wanted to: sing to them, read to them, take them to the park, take them to the library, learn with them, play with them. It is SUCH a privilege for me to do all of these things. I know that there are a lot of single parents who don't have this luxury and my heart goes out to them. I am just so grateful that I have this time with my babies so that I can watch them grow and be there for every single step in their lives.

Today, for example, both Aria and Cadence were able to sit for a long time on their own without tipping over! Sounds trivial, but I was there to see it and Kurt (who is at work and school for most of the day) wasn't. It is so amazing to experience these moments as they happen and I am just sad that Kurt can't do that all the time.

Don't get me wrong, the job isn't all ups. It has its occasional downs - like two babies screaming at the top of their lungs in unison while you make bottles. Or two babies screaming at the top of their lungs while you are driving on the freeway and have no time to pull over and stick their pacifiers back in. Everything is more overwhelming when two babies are screaming at the same time, trust me.

But if I wasn't a Stay-At-Home Mom, I would've missed all of these wonderful moments:

Dressing the girls up for a dip in the pool in their brand-new swimsuits!

Cadence crying because the water was too cold.

Aria trying out her new exersaucer.

Playing with balloons for the first time.

Cadence trying out the new jumperoo.

Sleeping soundly for their (unheard of) four hour nap.

Trying to coax my stubborn Aria into smiling for a mommy/daughter selfie.

Wearing their gender reveal coats for the first time :) 

Nakey babies knocked out after playing so hard.

Aria getting all wrapped up in the blanket after learning how to roll.

Checking out some books at the library.

They were playing a game of who could take out each other's pacifiers first.

Cute Cadence finally smiling for a selfie with mama.

Aria having more fun with the curtain than the toys on the exersaucer.

Cadence actually bouncing in the jumperoo for the first time!

I get to do this. I don't have to. I don't need to. I get to.

And I wouldn't change a single thing.

Six Months Old.

Today the babies reached their half birthday! I can't believe that they've been here for six whole months now!! It seems like they've been in our lives forever, but at the same time it feels like time has just flown by.

They are growing so fast and learning new things everyday. It is amazing to watch them grow!

They've both become more comfortable with sitting and can sit for a while on their own before tipping over. They both like to eat their toes too! They are stuffing everything they can into their little mouths, especially our fingers!

We've started feeding the girls solid food! They've eaten lots of rice cereal and are starting to eat applesauce. At first Aria didn't really like the rice cereal, but now they both love it. They never had a problem eating applesauce though! That was an immediate hit with them. They are still sleeping for about 10-11 hours straight every night. They have their off nights, though, but for the most part they sleep well.

We've discovered that our cutie Cadence is not a night person. She is calm and sweet during the day but after her afternoon nap she becomes very ornery and fussy. She loves trying to grab at the spoon when we're feeding her, and she'll probably soon be trying to feed herself! She is very open to new foods. She doesn't smile or cry nearly as much as Aria but often just quietly keeps to herself. She weighed 16 lbs 10 oz at her last appointment and was 25 1/2 in long!! 

While Cadence is a day person, our sweetie Aria is a night person. She is fussing and crying like crazy during the day but after her nap it's like she turns off a switch and is just calm and sweet. It's funny how they both are opposite like that. Her emotions have a much wider range than Cadence. She smiles and giggles so much but then all of a sudden she can scream and cry out of no where. She is harder to introduce new foods to, but she eventually likes them. At their appointment, Aria weighed 16 lbs 9 oz and was 25 in long. They are always pretty much neck and neck when they get measured!

We are so excited for this huge milestone for them! It has been the most challenging, exciting, fun, and fulfilling six months of my life! We love these girls so much and cannot wait to see what the next six months has in store :) 

Five Months Old!

The babies are five months old! I can't believe that they have been in our lives for five months already!!! They've grown so much since they entered our lives!

First night home from the hospital

Five month old cuties!

 Both our girls have grown exponentially over the past 5 months! They can both roll over onto their tummies easily now, but have a hard time rolling onto their back again. They are both holding their bottles and feeding themselves (with some assistance). They both have their two bottom teeth and are teething a lot! We started feeding them rice cereal, but they didn't like it very much so we're still working on it. They both drink 4-5 oz of milk every four hours. They still sleep straight through from 8:30 pm to 7:00am. They take two naps during the day, and are rolling around and playing for the rest of it! And lastly, they both can sit up in their Bumbo (thanks Katrina!) and hold their heads up with no problem!

Sassy Aria

Cutie Cadence

Aria weighs 14 lbs 15 oz and is 25 1/2 inches long! She is such a smiley little girl. She smiles at everyone she comes in contact with. She is always rolling over onto her tummy and once she's there, she starts to cry because she has a hard time figuring out how to roll back. She's rolled back several times, but she still struggles. She is always reaching for her toes and she is SO flexible!

Cadence weighed 14 lbs 7 oz and was 25 inches long. Cadence does the best with strangers. She is so curious and is always reaching out and trying to touch your face. She doesn't roll onto her tummy as much as Aria does, but when she does roll she makes the full rotation and goes from tummy to back to tummy again. Cadence is definitely our little talker! She is always cooing and trying to talk to us throughout the day. It's so cute!

Aria and Cadence keep growing daily and we are having a hard time trying to keep up!!! They keep surprising us with all the new things that they can do. We just love them SO much and are so excited for everyday we have with these two cuties!

Four Months Old!

Yesterday Aria and Cadence turned four months old! They have grown so much in the last month - just the last week even! To celebrate this big milestone, we took a trip out to Park City as a family :)

We also wanted to take Brittny on her first ski lift and ride down the Alpine Slide! I went up with Brittny while Kurt watched the babies and then Kurt went up while she and I fed them.

Brittny was really scared to go on the ski lift and was also pretty apprehensive about going down the slide since there are no straps securing you in. But she ended up having fun!

Kurt has gone down this slide several times, so while Brit and I went on the "slow track," he sped down on one of the fast lanes.

The babies loved their first trip to Park City! They were so good the entire time, and hardly ever fussed!

They've grown up so much in the last month! According to our last appointment at WIC, the girls are both over 13 lbs! They are getting more and more rolls on their legs and necks :) They both love playing with toys now! They grab onto things and try to put it in their mouths. We think that they might be in the early stages of teething.

Cute little Aria has started to roll over! She's done it about three times now and it usually happens when she is trying to retrieve her pacifier. She can stand pretty well with help, but she also is able to lift her head up while she stands, which is new!

 Our pretty Cadence is talking like crazy! She's learned to make lots of new, interesting sounds and she is always testing her voice. She plays with toys a little more than Aria and can entertain herself for a long time with a toy. She hasn't rolled over to her stomach yet, but she rolls up on to her side a lot and we think she'll roll over really soon.

Our little girls are so big now and are making so many strides in their development! One BIG setback though, is that since we've moved to Utah they've had trouble sleeping through the night. We don't feed them at all through the night but they are constantly whimpering for their pacifiers at least ten times each during their eleven hours at night. Kurt and I have had some tough nights lately with little to no sleep because of it. The pediatrician warned us that this might happen before we left Hawaii and said that it should just be a short phase. That's what we are hoping! Other than that, the girls are doing really well and we just love them more than ever!

Raising Girls.

When I was pregnant with Aria and Cadence, we received all sorts of comments and advice when it came to raising girls. The comments ranged from "you're gonna have so much fun" to "oh gosh, I'm so glad I only have sons."

We recently watched a story on the news that described why (in the long run) it is better to have girls than to have boys. The reasons for this included that girls are less likely to live at home after age 18. They are less likely to ask for financial help. They are more likely to take care of their parents in their old age, etc. The story made some interesting points, so I considered this based on my experience thus far.

I have never had any sons before, but here are some things that I can tell you about raising girls. (Take into account that my girls are only three months old)

PROS:
-They don't pee on you unexpectedly while you're changing their diaper.
-You don't have to worry about the pain of things like circumcision.
-You can dress them up in cute dresses, headbands, etc.

CONS:
-I'm not positive, but I feel that girls whine more. Even as babies. While Aria and Cadence don't cry a ton, they whine and whimper a lot.
-Because they are so easy to shop for, you are always stuck with a ton of clothes to get rid of and not a lot of money in your wallet.

I don't know which is better necessarily, but I do know that I absolutely love having girls. I'm sure that there will be SO many more things to add to these lists as they grow, and I am looking forward to finding out what those things are.

However, one thing that Kurt and I have talked about is that we hope to raise our girls to not live by the traditional stereotypes that are usually imposed. Kurt hopes to teach them how to code and learn computer languages so they can be vital in a budding technological world. We want them to love math and science... to play with Legos and Lincoln Logs while also playing with Barbies like I did. When we went to Chili's the other day, Cadence was mistaken for a boy simply because she was wearing green. I want them to be the type of girls that feel comfortable in green, in blue, and in pink or purple. I want them to feel that they can try anything... As a female wrestler myself, I don't want them to think that they can't do something simply because their gender traditionally doesn't participate in that certain activity. Ultimately, we want them to embrace themselves as girls, to love themselves and to know that they are daughters of God.

Three Months Old!

The girls made three months today! I cannot believe that three months have already gone by since these sweet angels came into the world! Each day we learn something new about each of them, and we love it.

Some things that have changed since their two month mark:

- The girls now sleep from 8pm to 4:30am consistently every night. We LOVE the long stretch during the night because it gives us a chance to really catch up on sleep as well. Other than that, they are eating every four to five hours during the day. We put them down for a nap at noon everyday and they usually sleep for two hours.
- They are starting to grab at things a lot now. They each cling to my ponytail and even sometimes try to rip my hair out. They are grabbing at the toys on their play gym as well. I'm so happy that they are improving in their fine-motor skills a little more.
- They can hold their heads up by themselves without any problems now. We can sit them up and they can even stretch out their legs and stand for a few minutes with our assistance.
- We've discovered that Aria is more of an "outdoor" girl and Cadence is an "indoor girl." Whenever Aria is being fussy, if we take her outside, she gets really quiet and just looks curiously all around. Cadence, who is usually calm, is always fussy when we go on walks or are out in nature.
- Finally, Cadence has surpassed Aria in weight and length! When they were last weighed, Cadence was 12 lbs 7 oz and 23 inches long. Aria was 12 lbs 6 oz and 22 1/2 inches long. The little runt of our family has finally outgrown her big sister! :)

In addition to all these changes, the girls have had some new experiences this month as well! Other than going to many parks, picnics, and a graduation party, they also went to the beach for their very first time last week.

Cadence had a hard time adjusting to the water at first. But eventually she loved it.

Aria loved the water as soon as she went in! She's gonna be our little beach bum.

They had so much fun at their first beach outing! :) 

We are so proud of our little girls and how much they are growing! It seems like they grow and change everyday. They are just such big, healthy little girls and we are so grateful!