Opus 53 - A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Yesterday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I seriously considered moving to Australia. Actually, the entire day wasn't terrible...

It all started in the morning when Lissa and Joshua would not take their morning nap. They weren't crying or yelling, they were just laying in their cribs "chatting" with each other. There is always a day or two when they do this, but why do they always struggle to take their morning nap on Sunday? When they don't nap well in the morning it makes Church sooooo difficult because they're so exhausted. And, as I've mentioned before, my children do not fall asleep in my arms (or anyone's arms for that matter).

Despite their lack of morning nap, we still packed them up and headed for Church (1 p.m.). It started out okay, but then they both got a little fussy so Jason and I ended up in the lobby. I was holding Lissa and managed to get her to sleep so I went back into the Chapel. Joshua had other plans. He screamed for about 15 minutes with poor Jason trying to calm him down. After Sacrament meeting I offered to take Joshua during Sunday School to give Jason a break.

This is where the day became a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Joshua screamed the ENTIRE hour. I'm not kidding. He screamed so loud that the scream was echoing outside. (When the babies scream, we usually take them outside of the building so the screaming doesn't echo through the halls.) It was horrible!!!! To make matters worse, at least a dozen people walked out of the church, looked at me, and hurried away. Not one, I repeat, not one person asked if I needed help. I just needed to get a message to Jason to ask him to come out so we could go home. But my cell phone was in the diaper bag with Jason (who decided that women don't need pockets??) and I couldn't go inside with Joshua screaming so loud. Nobody got near me so I wasn't even able to ASK for help. Needless to say, I was very frustrated. I was also very sad that I couldn't seem to calm my poor baby. He was so exhausted and just wanted to sleep and I couldn't help him. I see so many babies calm right down when their mom puts them on her shoulder; why can't I help my babies that way??

Jason came out after Sunday School and we went home. We put the babies to bed immediately. They were so exhausted that they fell asleep instantly. Poor kiddos. I then got my crying out. I was just so frustrated and sad.

Don't worry, this story is about to get much better.

As I was getting my frustrations out over a bowl of ice cream and a game of Guitar Hero (more on that later), we heard a knock on the door. It was our friend Wendy from our Ward - she brought us brownies! Wendy has two year old twin girls and is wonderful to talk to about the twin thing - she can really understand what it's like and offers the greatest advice and comfort. I told her about my day and she told me that her girls were the same way (unable to fall asleep in her arms). We talked awhile longer about the babies and how things are going. By the time she left I felt so much better. The Lord knew I needed someone to talk to who really understands what I'm going through and Wendy is incredible enough to be listening to the Spirit and came over. I'm so grateful for my Heavenly Father for giving Wendy the inspiration to come over and I'm so grateful to Wendy for listening to the Spirit!

I'm no longer considering a move to Australia.

Opus 52 - Joshua's Cardio Appointment

I think I've mentioned before that the NICU doctor asked us to take Joshua to the Cardiologist again. After reading the info from Joshua's last monitor download, he said Joshua's heart rate was slower than usual. Today was the big appointment. They did an EKG and the doctor said everything looks great. She said his heart rate is perfect and there are no problems. This is great news, but to be honest with you, we weren't really concerned since Joshua is an active boy who is having no issues with growth and eating. We're proud of our little boy!

Opus 51 - Yummy Recipes

I found a couple of great recipes so I thought I'd share:

Low Fat Chicken Burrito Filling

4 servings

2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 can tomato sauce
1/4 cup salsa
1 package taco seasoning mix
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon chili powder
hot sauce to taste

Place chicken breasts and tomato sauce in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to a boil, then add salsa, seasoning [I made my own and put in about 3 teaspoons], cumin, garlic [I used garlic powder], and chili powder. Let simmer for 15 minutes.

With a fork, start pulling the chicken meat apart into thin strings. Keep cooking pulled chicken meat and sauce, covered, for another 5 to 10 minutes. Add hot sauce to taste and stir together.

[We didn't use the hot sauce - we used the hot Taco Bell sauce for the salsa and smothered our burritos with medium enchilada sauce. That seemed to add enough kick. Next time I'm going to double or triple the recipe and freeze a lot. BTW, this made more than 4 servings. I'd say it's closer to 6ish.]


Chipotle's Basmati Rice

1 teaspoon vegetable oil or butter
2 teaspoons fresh cilantro
2/3 cup white basmati rice [I used regular white rice]
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 lime

In a two quart heavy sauce pan, heat oil or butter over low heat, stirring occasionally until melted. Add rice and lime juice, stir for one minute. Add water and salt, bring to a full rolling boil. At boiling, cover, turn down to simmer over low heat until rice is tender and the water is absorbed, about 25 minutes. Fluff rice with a fork. [The recipe doesn't say when to add the cilantro, I added it after the rice was completely cooked. This made about 4 servings.]

Opus 50 - Baby Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of the babies:

Opus 49 - My Mother's Arms

We all know that children are a juxtaposition of their parents' features and behaviorisms. It's always interesting to see how much we are like our parents as we get older. I've always considered myself a good mix of both of my parents.

In many ways, I'm my father's daughter - I like to put things together, fix things, organize things, be on time (early!), sing his silly songs, and tell his silly jokes :) For example, yesterday I installed a new shower head and I'm currently working on installing the gates at the top and bottom of the stairs (gotta be ready for those twins - they're gonna be crawling before I know it!).

I've always known that I'm also very much my mother's daughter. My grandma once told my mother, "I hope you have a child just like you!" Apparently, my mom wasn't the easiest child to raise. Soon enough, I came along to fulfill my grandma's wishes. Rumor has it that I wasn't the easiest baby/child. Although, in defense of the difficult baby thing, I've recently figured out that I was colicky (yes, Mom, breastfed babies can be colicky).

I'm also like my mother in many other ways - I enjoy cooking and consider myself a fairly good cook, I'm a teacher and am passionate about that profession, I have been known to misplace my white erase markers at school (I'd then tell my students that I was becoming more and more like my mother, laughter would ensue, and I'd warn them that it will happen to them someday too!), fortunately no keys have been lost... although I do remember finding my cell phone in the refrigerator once!

I've been told that I look a lot like Mom too. The other day Aunt Lissa and I were feeding the babies when I looked at my arms and realized that they look exactly like my mother's. My hands do too. I commented on this to Lissa and she agrees. It's strange looking at my arms and seeing my Mom's. It's not a bad thing, just kind of weird :)

Opus 48 - Surgery

I finally had my surgery! It is so good to have that done and over with. It turned out to be quite the adventure... When they went in to take my gallbladder out, they discovered that it was full, VERY full, of gallstones. The surgeon said there were a million gallstones, but I'm sure he was exaggerating. I don't imagine he actually counted them! LOL. After removing the gallbladder, they removed all the stones they could, but there were some in my bile duct that they couldn't get to. So I had to spend the night in the hospital and have an endoscopy the next day. So much fun, let me tell you. I can't deny that it was nice to recover with nurses around, but I sure missed my babies!

Speaking of the babies, thank you to everyone who help take care of them!... Mom Smith, Aunt Emily, Aunt Lissa, Kelly, B.J., and anyone else who came over without my knowing :) And thanks to Jason for being such a wonderful husband! You're the greatest!

I'm very happy to be able to hold my babies again! Yes, that's right, by Sunday (three days after surgery) I was holding them and carrying them around. I'm a very fast healer and I'm very grateful for that. I'd say I feel about 80-85%. And that's without the "big" drugs - I've been on Advil since Saturday. So far, so good!

They gave me pictures of my gallbladder and gallstones. Jason thinks they're awesome, so I'm going to put them here for those of you that like that kind of stuff, but I'm going to put a big break here so those of you who would rather not see the pictures - and I don't blame you if you don't - can just not scroll down :)

Opus 47 - Saturday Fun

We enjoyed a great football game on Saturday. I was nervous that this was going to be a close game. I mean, we were playing UCLA, who is supposed to be a good team. But, it turned out to be a blowout. I couldn't believe how we kept scoring (even with our 2nd and 3rd string players in) and how they kept..., well, not scoring. It was a very enjoyable game. We brought Lissa and Joshua again. We used the earphone things again and they worked great for Joshua. Lissa just doesn't seem to like them very much. It seems she would rather fall asleep to the roar of the crowd :) She struggled a little more than she did at the Washington game, but still did pretty well for a six month old!

After the game, we went to Nicole's house for dinner with the cousins. Uncle Norma, Aunt JaNae, and Natalie were there with Phil and Jennie's kids. It's always great to see them! It was also fun to see Lon and his cute boys. It was good to see Nicole, Lynnette, Chris, and Kate. That little Kate is growing up! Steve and Joni were also there with their two kids so I finally got to meet my niece Erneke! I was supposed to go up to Clearfield to meet her awhile ago, but that was the day I ended up in the emergency room. I was so bummed that I missed out :( I didn't know Steve and Jonie were coming to dinner so it was a very pleasant surprise to see them! We also had the added pleasure of having Bethany and Matthew come to their first Utah Cousin Dinner. I hope they didn't mind hanging around the "old" people too much! As is always the case at Stevens Family Dinners, it was fun to see the family and enjoy everyone's company.

Opus 46 - Lissa & Joshua's Portraits

We finally had professional pictures of the babies taken at the end of August. It was quite an adventure, but we're so glad we did it. I hope you enjoy them! We love them!

Opus 45 - Seattle, Part 7 (the last Seattle post!)

We traveled back to Utah on Wednesday. We were ready to go home, so were the babies :) It was a pretty uneventful trip back. We took the shuttle from the rental car place to the airport, went through security, and loaded the plane. Lissa slept through most of the flight and was pretty good during the times she was awake. The only time she cried was when she heard Joshua crying, so I just covered her ears and she went back to sleep. Joshua struggled more on this flight. He did his share of crying, but it didn't get too bad. Jason did a good job with him. After arriving in SLC, we took the shuttle to long term parking, loaded the car, and drove home.

The babies were so excited to be home. When I put Joshua in his crib and started his mobile, he got a huge smile and just started kicking and kicking. It was so cute!

I'm very proud of my babies. The did a pretty good job, all things considered, on this trip. It was nice to finally visit Washington. I look forward to going back someday when the kids are older!

Lissa & Joshua in the SeaTac Airport

Lissa & Joshua with all of our stuff :)

Opus 44 - Seattle, Part 6

Tuesday started very early for me. At approximately 12:00 a.m., I woke up in a ton of pain. It was another gallbladder episode, as I've been calling them. I'm sure it was because of that elephant ear I ate, but it was still worth it! Fortunately, I remembered to pack my loratab, so I took two and felt much better once it kicked in. Unfortunately, the loratab made me feel sick to my stomach most of Tuesday.

This was Mt. Rainier day. Despite my not feeling well, we packed up the kids and headed for the mountain. It had been recommended that we go to the Sunrise Visitors Center, so we drove to the Northeast entrance. Unfortunately, Sunrise was closed. After learning this, we stopped at a campground to feed to babies and make a new plan. The campground was beautiful! It was nice to sit out in the forest and feed the babies.

While we were feeding the babies, a really nice older couple from Illinois stopped by to ask about the twins. We talked for quite awhile and they eventually invited us to have lunch with them at their campsite. The lunch and company was great. It was fun to talk to this couple and get to know them.

After lunch, we decided we would go to the Ohanapecosh Visitors Center on the Southeast corner of the park. We drove about 5 miles before we had to turn around because they had closed to road to repave it. The only other way to another visitors center would have taken us on an 80 mile detour. So we said goodbye to Mt. Rainier and drove to Puyallup. It was disappointing to not get to go to a visitors center or see other views of the mountain, but we did enjoy meeting the couple from Illinois and we got some great views of Rainier from the campground.

When we arrived in Puyallup, the babies were sleeping well in the car, so Jason took me on a short tour of the town, including stops at his old high school, middle school, and elementary school.

We then drove to Jeff & Sarah Case's house to feed the babies (sometimes it seems like that's all we do) and eat dinner with the Cases. It was really nice to spend some time visiting with Jeff and Sarah. I wish we could have stayed longer. The dinner was great (thanks Sarah!) and the babies weren't too fussy.

Poor babies. In their defence, this was a hard trip on them. Not only did they miss out on many naps, but the poor kids are teething right now. For those of you who have gone through babies teething, you know what I'm talking about. Imagine two babies teething. I don't know how Janae survived three babies teething. You're amazing Janae!

After a great evening with the Cases, we took our poor babies back to the hotel for the last time. We packed up all we could that night while the babies were sleeping and got some rest before we traveled home the next day.

Lissa & Joshua at the Mt. Rainier Campground

Joshua & Emily at the Mt. Rainier campground

Jason & Lissa at the Mt. Rainier campground

Mt. Rainier

Lissa playing with Daddy on the Case's trampoline

Opus 43 - Seattle, Part 5

Monday was Seattle Day. It's the day we went to downtown Seattle to do some sightseeing. We had previously decided that we wanted to go to the top of the Space Needle. After learning that it's free to go up if you eat at the Sky City restaurant, we decided it was worth it to eat there. (Even though it's a more expensive restaurant, if you consider we were going to spend $30 to go to the top anyway, it works out to be a very decent price for the food - especially for lunch.) We thought the babies would do better if we let them get a good nap in the morning, so I did some laundry while they napped. We then headed out for our lunch at the Space Needle.

Our morning nap idea didn't work, but at least we tried. The restaurant was great, the view was spectacular, the food was wonderful, the babies weren't impressed :) I spent most of our time up there walking around with a baby (they took turns) and I had to stand up while eating what food I did manage to have time to eat. The restaurant rotates while you are up there and I'm very glad that we were able to do almost a complete rotation before the babies let us know they could take it no more. In reality, our babies were making no more noise than the table next to us, but we still felt it was time to go.

After going up one level and checking out the view from outside, we went downstairs and spent some time looking around the gift shop while the babies napped in their stroller. We then took the monorail to Pike Place Market and enjoyed walking around there. It's a neat open air market with fruit, fish (thank goodness it's open air!), veggies, flowers, and crafts. The babies were great on the train ride and did very well in the market. Jason and I enjoyed walking around and checking everything out.

I'm afraid that's all we did in Seattle. It would have been nice to do more, but we did have to feed the babies twice while we were there and that takes time. In addition, we didn't want to stay too late in order to avoid any meltdowns. I would really like to go back when the kids are older. I think there is a lot there that they would enjoy and we'd be able to do/see a lot more. I'm very glad we got to go up the Space Needle and see Pike Place Market - those were the two things I really wanted to do.

The babies did pretty well on the ride home and, once again, had a great night's sleep. And we had another relaxing evening :)

The Space Needle

The view from our table at lunch

Emily at Pike Place Market

The beautiful flowers at the market

Lissa & Joshua at the market

Opus 42 - Seattle, Part 4

Once again, we let the babies get a little nap in before leaving for Church in Puyallup. We left a little later than we wanted (what parent doesn't struggle with that one?), but managed to arrive at the church just in time. Thanks to the Wardles for saving us a seat! Naturally, the babies struggled with Sacrament meeting :) I spent most of the time out in the hall with Lissa. My babies just don't fall asleep in people's arms very well. Six days a week that is a wonderful thing! it's not exactly easy to rock my kids to sleep with two of them, so it's great to be able to put them in bed and they go to sleep. One day a week (Sunday), I watch other moms with their babies peacefully sleeping in their arms and I get a little jealous.

It's funny - I really expected Joshua to have a harder time on this trip, but as I write this it seems like I'm describing a lot more melt downs from Lissa, huh? Kids are funny that way, always keeping us on our toes and surprising us.

Despite the babies having their usual Sunday struggles, it was nice to meet people from Jason's old Ward. He really enjoyed seeing old friends.

After church, Jason drove us around the old neighborhood. It was nice to see his old house. Jason says the backyard is a lot smaller than he remembers it. I thought it looked like a very decent sized backyard though. We then went to the Wardle's house for dinner. Their daughter, Anna, was their with her husband and three daughters. It was nice to get to know the Wardles - they are a great family. Dinner was wonderful (despite the bees) and the company was great. The babies each got a very short nap in. We had to leave a little earilier than I think Jason wanted to, but the poor kids were losing it (again), so we headed out.

The kids were so tired when we got to our hotel! They had another great sleep night and we had another relaxing evening.

The volleyball court that Jason put in for his Eagle project
(with the church in the background).
It's too bad it hasn't been kept in good repair.

Jason's old house in Puyallup

Anna with Joshua

Tess

Lynn with Joshua

Opus 41 - Seattle, Part 3

Saturday was another great day. We went to the BYU vs. University of Washington football game. Our friend Sarah Case drove up from Puyallup to join us for the game. At breakfast that morning (another great thing about the hotel - full, hot, yummy breakfast each day) I asked the two clerks at the front desk how long it would take us to drive to the game in "game day" traffic. They replied, "25 minutes, tops." "Are you sure? With game day traffic and everything?" I asked. "Oh yes, 25 minutes," they replied. Okay, we'll trust the locals. We left about an hour early to give us time to park and walk to the stadium.

We learned that you shouldn't trust the locals. It took much longer than 25 minutes. We had real trauma finding parking too. Sadly, we arrived at the game with about five or six minutes left in the first half. Fortunately for Jason, we had just purchased a small AM/FM radio. He was able to find the station with the game and listen to the game while we went through our parking trauma.

Those of you who read about our last adventure at a football game will be happy to know that the babies were angels at this game. We found these great ear phone/muff like things online that are made for babies as young as 3 months that completely keep the sound out. It worked like a charm for Joshua! Lissa didn't like it much, so we didn't use it with her, but we didn't need it since she slept through all of the noise any way. It was nice to be able to watch the game and not worry about the noise waking the babies.

Of course, the best part of the game was the final score - BYU 28, University of Washinngton 27. Go Cougars!

Sadly, we forgot our camera and were therefore unable to take pictures of the beautiful campus or the cute babies.

The babies did struggle a little with the ride home, but Sarah helped by entertaining them. Thanks Sarah!

We made the mistake of trying to go out for dinner that night to celebrate the Cougars' win. Jason had never been to the Cheesecake Factory so we went there. The babies struggled so much that we had to get our food to-go. Oh well. It was still great food!

Opus 40 - Seattle, Part 2

Friday was a much better day than Thursday. We let the babies take their usual morning nap while I went to the store to buy diapers and a few other necessities. After their nap, we drove to Snoqualmie Falls. It was just beautiful! The babies were happy the whole time we were there, so we were able to enjoy looking at the falls and just wondering around the property.

We then drove to Jason's home town of Puyallup and went to the famous Puyallup Fair (6th largest in the country!). We had a great time walking around the fair grounds and checking everything out. We were able to see baby pigs (we took a picture just for you, Aunt Lissa!), beautiful horses, cute kitties, and lots of arts and crafts. We even found some elephant ears!!! I just had to have one, even though I shouldn't have, and it was soooo good! For those of you not familiar with elephant ears, don't worry, they aren't real elephant ears. They're kind of like scones, but much lighter, with butter, sugar, and cinnamon on them. My mouth is watering just writing about them!

We tried to drive around Puyallup after the fair, but the babies wouldn't have it. Once again, poor little Lissa lost it. We drove to Jason's old scout master's house (the Wardles), hoping we could stop there to feed the babies. Fortunately, we arrived just as Tess was leaving. She was very sweet and let us go in to her house and feed the babies, even though no one was home.

After feeding the babies, they were still upset and crying. We said a prayer that they'd be able to calm down and loaded them into the car. Our prayer was answered - they fell asleep after about 5 minutes of screaming. We were able to drive back to our hotel in peace :)

We put the babies down and enjoyed a relaxing evening.

This is a good time to tell you how great our hotel was. We decided it would be worth it to spend a little extra money and get a one bedroom suite. Oh man, was it worth it! The babies slept in the living room, with us in the bedroom. It was so nice to be able to watch TV, talk, and relax while the babies were peacefully sleeping. They slept 12-13 hours each night, giving us lots of down time. So wonderful! It was also nice to have a kitchen, especially the dishwasher - we were able to wash bottles every day so easily!

Jason at the Fair

The Fair

Lissa looking like Grandma Camacho with her lotion on her face :)

The cute piggies

Jason at Snoqualmie Falls

Snoqualmie Falls

Snoqualmie Falls

Emily at Snoqualmie Falls

Opus 39 - Seattle, Part I

We are now home from our vacation to Seattle. We made it! It was a good vacation. It was also stressful, but it was still good. I've decided I'm going to break the trip details up into a few different posts so there isn't one long one. This is all about our flight, drive, etc., to Seattle...

As I was hoping, I was able to get everything packed up and the car loaded before I started feeding the babies. Yeah! We left as soon as Jason got home from work. Jason's Mom very kindly followed us up so she could help me with the babies while Jason was leaving the car in long term parking (we left it there so my sister, Lissa, could pick it up and use it when she flew in a couple days later) - thanks Mom! We fed the babies some carrots while waiting for Jason. Fun, fun :)

Getting through security was pretty easy considering all of the junk we had - two diaper bags, lap top, rolling carry-on, stroller, two car seats, two babies... The security staff was very kind and helped us a lot. We were so on schedule that we even had time to grab a bite to eat before loading the plane. A very kind lady helped us get our stuff down to the end of the jet bridge. We boarded the plane, found our seats and were ready to go when a flight attendant realized that we couldn't have Jason and I sitting in the same row. Why?, you might ask... It turns out there are four oxygen masks in each row. Who knew? With the other person on our row and the two babies, we had five people. After a little juggling and a very nice passenger switching seats, we were able to arrange it so Jason was sitting behind me.

The babies started getting hungry before the plane was loaded, so we had to start feeding them early. I was nervous that they would finish their bottles before we took off and they wouldn't be sucking on anything as we went up in altitude, but it worked out. Both babies finished their bottles and fell asleep sucking their binkies. They slept the entire flight!! It was great! Lissa actually woke up for about 10 minutes, but she just laid in my arms staring off until she fell asleep again.

It was after we landed that the excitement began. The pilot had a hard time lining the plane up with the jet bridge. We sat there for about 20 minutes waiting. One of the flight attendants held Joshua during this time because she thought he was so cute (who doesn't?). Both babies were awake, but happy so we didn't mind the wait too much. Unfortunately, the pilot never got the plane lined up right, so we ended up having to get off the plane the old fashioned way - walking down the stairs to the tar mat, then back up to the jet bridge. As soon as we walked out of the plane, Lissa lost it. When I say lost it, I really mean LOST IT. She was screaming at the top of her lungs. We got to the end of the jet bridge and found out they had sent our stroller to baggage claim! We had to walk all the way to baggage claim with two screaming babies (Joshua thought it'd be cool to join Lissa after awhile) and all of our stuff. It didn't help that we were at the furthest end of the airport, requiring us to take the train.

When we finally got to baggage claim, we happily found our stroller and put the babies in it. A kind Delta employee got our bags and put them on carts while we tried, unsuccessfully, to soothe the babies.

We then had to load a shuttle to get to our rental car (crying babies in tow). We finally made it to our rental car, loaded it, and got to our hotel. When I was checking in I asked about our pack-n-plays that they had promised (several times) they would have for us. I was told they were in the room. There were no pack-n-plays in our room. I called the front desk about it and they did some research and called back to tell me they only had one pack-n-play. After explaining that my babies would not sleep in the same small pack-n-play (rolling all over each other), they somehow found another one.

We finally managed to get the babies calm and to sleep. Phew. One travel day done. We were exhausted and just fell asleep as fast as the babies.

So far so fun, huh?