No Water For 42 Hours!

Wednesday (November 12th) at about 5:00 I went to turn on our kitchen faucet to wash dishes and the water wouldn't come on. Then, I noticed that the washing machine had stopped rinsing the clothes that were in the washer. Then I made the realization that WE HAD NO WATER! Something had happend to our well. So, Darin crawled down into the well, which is bug and spider infested (talk about fear factor), and tried to figure out what happened with no success. Thursday, Darin had the day off work and he spent almost the entire day taking different parts of the well pump in to be tested by the pump store. Of course, the pump store said that they needed to come onsite to fix the problem, so they scheduled an appointment for 9:00 a.m. on Friday. To make a long story short we finally had water by 11:00 a.m on Friday. I am not looking forward to seeing the bill on this one! You never really realize how much you use something until you can't use it. We had to be quite creative when it came to showers, toilet use, washing hands, washing dishes, making baby bottles, etc. I am so glad that I live in the 21st century. Hooray for indoor plumbing!

Elizabeth's Echo

Elizabeth loves to sit in the hall and hear her voice echo. I am so glad I finally got some video of her doing something. She is hard to capture on camera because usually stops doing what ever it is she was doing as soon as she sees the camera. This time she was too facinated by hearing her own voice that she just kept talking. Yeah! The video works. Sorry it is so dark, I didn't want to turn the light on and interrupt Elizabeth's song.

Idaho Couch Potatoes

It has been a bit cold and windy the past few days and it seems like we have watched more TV than usual. I just these were some cute shots of the family hanging out together.

Happy Halloween 2008

Abigail was Cinderella for Halloween this year. She felt so beautiful. She was quite worried though because she did not have a prince charming to go trick-or-treating with. Then, she found Gavin (my visiting teacher's son). He saw Abigail and the first words out of his mouth were "Abigail you look so beautiful today" What a little stud muffin. They trick-or-treated together for a couple of houses, I guess she found her prince charming after all.

Rockland is such a fun, safe place to go trick-or-treating. We had such a fun time strolling the twins around and watching Abigail go from door to door.

Elizabeth was a mouse for Halloween and Emily was a pumpkin. Elizabeth would not wear her mouse hood; she would scream every time I put it on her head, so we sneakily put it behind her for the picture. That was the best we could do. I don't know that the twins knew what to think about all of the Halloween commotion, but they had a lot of fun strolling around the town.

Grand Nan Visits Idaho

My mom has been here since October 18th and will leave tomorrow (Nov 2nd). She came to take care of the kids so that I could go on an adventure in North Carolina and Tennessee (more about my adventure later). We have had so much fun that I haven't taken many pictures. I will try to get some more today. The girls just love it when Grand Nan visits.

Elizabeth Video

I don't have any video of Elizabeth on the blog so I thought I would post some video of her too bad the video is sideways, I am not sure why it is doing that. Her new thing is to hang her legs out of the railing of her crib and swing them.

Winter is Here

Friday, October 10th - We accidentally left the sprinkler on in the middle of the night. Our poor tree. Saturday Morning - October 11th - The beginnnings of snow fall.
Covered in Snow - Sunday Morning - October 12th
Abigail is happy the snow is here.

Misty in 1972

This is what my year book photo would have looked like in 1972 - the year my mom graduated high school. To see what you would have looked like go to www.yearbookyourself.com It was kind of fun!

The Twins Are 9 Months Old

The twins are 9 months old today. They are growing up so fast. I found it quite difficult to get a good picture of them because they kept moving all over the place. These pictures were the best I could do considering the circumstances. I have about 25 other pictures of the back of their heads.
In honor of their 9 month birthday, I took them to get flu shots yesterday.

Emily Celia - 9 months old

Elizabeth Claire - 9 months old

A New Sleeping Position

Last night I laid Elizabeth in her crib to go to sleep and then went to get myself ready for bed. When I passed back by the nursery, this is what I saw. Elizabeth is on the side of her crib facing the doorway. She had completly moved from one side of the crib to the other. Do you think she wants out?

Emily Wrestling Funshine Bear

Darin was watching the twins on Tuesday, so that Abigail and mommy could go to Pocatello. Emily kept trying to wrestle Elizabeth, so Darin got Funshine Bear for Emily to wrestle instead.

Picking on Someone Her Own Size

Emily Crawls

Emily actually crawled today, she has been scooting around for a while, but today she crawled to a little cd player that I had sitting on a shelf. I guess she couldn't resist the temptation. Hopefully, we will get some video of Elizabeth's doings some time soon.

Not A Silent Sleeper

I always know when Emily is about to fall asleep because she starts to moan. Occasionally, she will moan while she is sleeping too. Here is some video footage of my noisy napper.

Testing 1-2-3

I have been trying to figure out how to get video onto blogger and I think I figured it out. This video is really just a test, but you can watch it if you like. We will see if it works. The video is of Abigail and Darin painting her playhouse.

Baby Jail & Emily Standing

We were getting ready to go to Abigail's dance class and I put the twins in one of their cribs so I could pack the diaper bag. When I came back into the room this was what I found, so I ran and grabbed the camera. The twins look like they are planning an escape.
Right after I took the first picture Emily decided to stand up on her own for the 1st time. I was lucky that I had my camera in my hand so that I could just snap a quick photo. She is so proud. Time to lower the crib.

My Little Sister is Engaged%&*#!!!

As of September 19th 2008 Heather Nan Stocker (My baby sister) is engaged to Shane Michael Booth. I am so excited for her and a little bit nervous too. She has chosen me along with my mom as her designated wedding planners, but I don't really think that she could have stopped me from putting my two cents in anyway. Congratulations Heather & Shane. They will be getting married on Saturday, January 3rd 2009 in the Dallas, Texas Temple. If you know Heather and would like an invite, I am helping her collect addresses so send your address this way. By the way this is not a picture of Heather's ring. I just liked it.

Abigail's First Ride Home On The School Bus

I can not tell you how excited Abigail was to ride the bus with the big kids. She gets to ride the bus home on Thursdays, the buses are very safe here and the big kids look out for the little ones. The bus driver's name is Larry Fillmore and yes he was Darin's school bus driver when Darin was a little guy.

The Twins Are 8 Months Old Today

I can't believe how time has flown this year. It all seems like a blurr. I can't believe Emily and Elizabeth are 8 months old already. Emily Celia

*Sleeps through the night, but very difficult to get to sleep. She would rather wiggle and screech.

*Wild sleeper. It is impossible to keep a blanket on top of her.

*Has one bottom tooth.

*Is in size 12 months clothes. Size 4 diapers. (The outfit she is wearing is what Abigail wore at her 1st birthday party.)

*Very Strong. She makes me tired when I hold her because I am constantly fighting a wiggly baby.

*Knows how to babble, but she prefers screeching as her form of communication.

*Loves to blow bubbles and raspberries.

*Plays with toys; she will sit in her playpen and play for 20 minutes without complaining.

*Tries to crawl. She pushes herself backwards as her means of transportation. She hasn't quite figured out the forward motion yet.

*She bangs her head into the floor when she gets mad or frustrated.

*Tries to pull herself up, but she can't stand yet.

*Puts anything and everything in her mouth that she can get her hands on.

*Likes puffs and mum mums (food)

*Very cautious about new people.

Elizabeth Claire

*Still wakes up at least once in the night, but pretty easy to get to sleep, I just lay her down with a pacifier or her bottle if she is hungry and she falls asleep.

*Has two bottom teeth.

*In size 9 months clothes. Size 3 diapers.

*My cuddly baby. She loves to be cuddled and loved all day long, which can sometimes pose as a problem for mom.

*Babbles saying, "dadada, bababa, mamama"

*Silly girl. She loves to laugh at anything.

*Plays with toys, but doesn't like to be left in her play pen very long.

*Not too interested in crawling, she prefers sitting over being on her stomach. She rolls as her mode of transportation.

*She throws herself backwards when she gets mad or frustrated.

*She loves to sleep with a blanket covering her eyes, just like Abigail.

*Puts anything and everything in her mouth that she can get her hands on.

*She loves to rip and tear magazines and newspaper.

*Very friendly.

*She loves baby food.

Abigail's First Day of Pre-School

Abigail had her first day of school today. She was so excited to go be with friends. She will go to the Rockland School on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1-3. Her pre-school teacher is named Mrs. Taysom. Mrs. Taysom was Darin's Kindergarten teacher 27 years ago. I hope Abigail doesn't cause her to retire.
Outside Rockland School. First day jitters. I think she was just putting on an act because she was beside herself with excitement before we left the house. Maybe she was a little bit nervous or maybe a little melodramatic or maybe both, who knows?

Labor Day Weekend Camping At Henry's Lake State Park

We decided to take a family camping trip to Henry's Lake, which is about 15 minutes away from West Yellowstone. We realized that this was the first time in five years that we have taken a family trip, with just us. We have taken several trips since we have been married, but we have always traveled with someone else or gone to visit family. We love traveling with our loved ones, but it was nice to have just the five of us. Darin went camping at Henry's Lake as a child and it brought back a lot of memories for him. Darin & Abigail outside our pop up tent trailer.
Abigail loved to dig in the rocks with our kitchen utensils.
When we were down by the lake we saw this thing on top of the mountain. It looked like a space ship from where we were. Curiosity got the best of Darin and we drove 12 miles up the mountain to look at this FAA tower. Abigail was convinced that martians lived in the great big ball and she kept looking for them the whole time we were up there.
I was the first one to spot Aliens on top of the mountain. There were three of them.
Henry's Lake is a beautiful campground, but we quickly discovered that there was nothing to do, but go boating and since we didn't have a boat, we had to figure out something to entertain Abigail (a person can only play Go Fish so many times). We went to West Yellowstone one day and found a nice playground. Abigail had a blast.

Side Note: Some of you may be wondering why I am not in any of the pictures, well, I will tell you: I love camping, but I do not love pictures of me camping, so I made sure that I was the designated photographer this camping trip. Also, some of you may be wondering how it was to take 3 kids under the age of 4 camping. Let me just say, the first day was a disaster and it got much better from there aside from the storm that we were in on the second night. I would definitely do it again (maybe next Memorial Day) we had some great bonding time, especially with Abigail.

Bear World

We were happy not to encounter any bears on our camping trip, but Abigail was bound and determined to see a bear before we got home. She said she wanted to "go on a bear hunt" so on our way home from Henry's Lake we stopped at Yellowstone's Bear World, which is about 5 miles outside of Rexburg, Idaho. This was definitely the highlight of Abigail's weekend. We saw Elk, Deer, Wolves, a Moose, and of course tons of bears: Grizzly Bears & Black Bears. She told me that she was a little bit disappointed that she didn't see a buffalo or a raccoon. Black Bear
Bear World had a bunch of little carnival rides for the kids - free of charge, since admission was a bit pricey. She is finally tall enough to go on some of the rides.
At the petting zoo. Abigail's favorite, the pot-bellied pig.
The Moose
Abigail met a friend named Moory from Chicago, she just hopped in the car right next to him and they were best friends from then on (well, at least for the next 15 minutes).

Tah Dah!

All Finished. The Playhouse is complete. Nice Work Darin.

What A Week!

About a month ago, the music teacher in Rockland asked me to substitute for him for the first week of school. I said "sure" thinking I would do him a favor and get a little experience teaching K-12 General Music, Band, & Choir. Then I remembered that I have children and a family which is the whole reason why I am not teaching in the first place. After making childcare arrangements for my three little cherubs, I realized that I would only be making between $15-$22 per day after the school takes out taxes and I pay for babysitting. Worth it? I think not. I had already committed myself to the music teacher, and really I was his only choice, so I went ahead and taught 7 classes of music each day for the first week of school (Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday). Those of you that know me, know that I am a perfectionist, so I went over my lesson plans for several hours each night to make sure that I knew exactly how I was going to do things. I think the classes went well, I had fun. It was nice to have a little change in my life, but I definitely am still not planning on teaching anytime soon. I was so tired by the time I got home from school, that I didn't want to see anyone or do anything, but yet I still had to be wife and mom (which I prefer) and it is just too much for me to juggle. Kudos to those of you that can be working mothers, I don't know how you do it and keep your sanity.

John Deere ZZZ's

Abigail asked her daddy if she could go for a ride in this John Deere Wagon that pulls behind his lawnmower. Darin said, "sure" so they went for a ride around the property. About 5 minutes later Darin turned around to ask Abigail if she was having fun and this is what he saw. Abigail is dead asleep. She is even sleeping with her shoes in her hand.

Abigail's Little House on the Prairie

Beginning the project.

Darin has been working on building Abigail a playhouse for a couple of months now and it is almost finished. He has to install the door (after we strip all of the lead paint off of it) and put railing on the front porch and then it will be finished. Abigail and her friends love to play house in it. She put her little kitchen, play food and a table in it. Darin is such a fun, handy dad. Now Abigail has her own Little House on the Prairie.

Almost done. Yes, Abigail has her own John Deere Lawn Mower of course. She wants to do everything that daddy does.

The Twins Are 7 Months Old!

Emily Celia - 7 Months Old

Elizabeth Claire - 7 Months Old

W0w! I can't believe that the twins are already 7 months old. Time goes by so fast when you are having crazy, chaotic, fun. I love their little personalities and I couldn't imagine my life without them.

First Finger Food

The twins got a taste of their first finger foods the other day. They are gumming a Baby MumMum Rice Biscut and they also got to try some Sweet Potato Puffs. They love the finger foods, much better than baby food.

Emily's Quirks

Emily has been rather difficult to get to sleep lately. She thrashes around, takes her pacifier out and won't stop babbling. So, when she does fall asleep I don't dare try to move her. Here she fell asleep in her boppy and I quickly remembered why I love her so much. She looks so peaceful when she is sleeping.

Emily LOVES this frog. She must have it in her crib if she is even willing to attempt to fall asleep. The frog seems to calm her down fairly quickly cause it sings about 6 minutes of lullaby music.