Under Construction

We threw a birthday party for William on Saturday and invited 50 of our closest friends and family members. It was a great excuse for food, and fun; and gave people a chance to see our new place. A few people were thrown off by the decorations and actually wondered what kind of work we were having done on the place.

Special thanks to Papa Bill for letting us borrow some of his office supplies to decorate for the party.

William LOVED all the crazy chaos and excitement (and food) that comes with such an event.

Pretty much all of William’s favorite people were there: his favorite aunts and uncles and cousins (minus Charlotte and Daniel and my older sisters’ families), all his grandparents, and his friends Stella, Cousin Daniel, and Kambree.

The kids had wheelbarrow races, built towers with toothpicks and marshmallows, and played a forklift game where they raced to pick up cottonballs with only a plastic fork.

We had food in little tool bins with great labels like drywall and spackle (pitas and hummus), nails (pretzel sticks), and boulders (meatballs).

But the favorite had to be the mud cake.

It was a fantastic chocolate buttermilk cake that I made for Catherine’s birthday and may now be the current Garff favorite. It was fantastic and theoretically (if anyone ever let it happen) would stay moist for days.

We covered it with chocolate fudge frosting mud, and oreo crumb dirt.  But Silly Billy’s highlight was all the trucks on top!

The cake was a huge hit with all the kids (and adults, too, lol).  I made 2, and we only were left with a few small pieces. We decided to wait on getting our new carpet until after the party.  By the looks of things, that was a wise decision.

And of course, no party is complete without hats.

William insisted that Daddy and Papa leave their hats on the entire time.

And now our Silly Billy won’t take his off.  It might even outrank Farmer Hat (for now).

Silly Billyness: Williamisms

My little Man is 3 years old today.  Where did the time go???

He went from this little peanut:




To this cute little guy:

 

 

And now my handsome little man is three!!! Where did all the time go???

In honor of his birthday, I have compiled a list of my favorite "Williamisms":

"William kiss his cricket friend, Mommy."

Me: "what do you want for breakfast, William?" Him: "turkey sandwich?"

Me: "William, who is your favorite sister? Is it Lily?" Him: "NO." Me: "Who is your favorite sister?" Him: "Caleb!" me: "Who is your favorite brother? Caleb?" Him: "No, Puppy."

"Where you are, Mommy?"

"Puppies don't eat mud. They eat bones...puppy bones."

I also surveyed William on his favorites:

1. What is your favorite color? Green

2. What is your favorite toy? Helicopter (came with his birthday train set from Grandma/Papa Garff)
3. What is your favorite fruit? Apples
4. What is your favorite tv show? Buzz (Toy Story)
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Turkey Sandwich with Avocado

6. What is your favorite outfit? Woody Jammies
7. What is your favorite game? Cup Game (Perudo---he just likes to shake the dice)
8. What is your favorite snack? Cheese Snack
9. What is your favorite animal? Baby Puppy
10. What is your favorite song? Farmer in the Dell
11. What is your favorite book? Creature ABCs
12. Who is your best friend? Daniel
13. What is your favorite cereal? Rice Crispies
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play in the sandbox
15. What is your favorite drink? Chocolate Milk
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Baby Puppy
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Waffles
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?  Mickey Chicken Nuggets, Sweet Potato Fries, Cupcakes
20. What do you want to be when you grow up?  Fireman/ambulance man (though I suspect his real answer is Farmer, lol).

 

We are so glad and so happy to have William in our lives. For awhile, I didn't know if he would join our family, and I will say that he was definitely worth the wait.  He can be trying (just like any 3 year-year-old will be), but he is such a silly, happy, sweet boy that we love him anyway. We've had great times at Disneyland and the beach, the cabin and the park, and some very fun and tender moments at home. We love you, Silly Billy!!!

The Caleb Man

Since birth, our Cal has earned the nickname Caleb Man. He started out much like a little old man (he had the most ridiculous receding hairline for ages!) and seemed to get a little grumpy if left alone.

We sing a little song to Caleb and have been having fun adding new verses. It goes to the tune of "The Muffin Man".

The Caleb Man, the Caleb Man
The Caleb Man, the Caleb Man
The Caleb Man, the Caleb Man
He is a real small size.

The Caleb Man, the Caleb Man
The Caleb Man, the Caleb Man
The Caleb Man, the Caleb Man
He is one of our favorite guys.

We've been having great fun coming up with new and exciting verses. Some our favorites include:

He lives on Glenmare street...he likes to kick his feet. (Or really likes to eat, lol).

He likes to just sit...please don't throw a fit.

He likes to eat his food..cuz it is really good.

He has a happy face...he jumps around this place.

He lives around the bend...he is our real good friend.

We just love our roly poly Caleb Man. He is happy and lovable and cuddly and cute. Though he does get fussy if he doesn't get enough attention, he is generally a good baby. Goes to bed within 5 minutes of putting him down and usually sleeps through the night. And thank goodness all he wants to do is sit and play or kick or jump in his jumperoo---I could not handle mobile babies just yet.

And boy, does he love to eat. Considering he took weeks to get a good latch and was always under the 5th percentile, this has been a great blessing. he went from my skinny little man, to a guy with thighs bigger than my biceps. Especially since he discovered solids he has been ever increasing in size and girth---and I LOVE it. At over 17 lbs, he is well over a pound heavier than his little sister, and finally pushing 25%.

We are so happy to have Caleb in our family!

Nesting

I didn't get to legitimately best while I was pregnant with the twins. Between bed rest, not having our own place to live, and not having funds, it just wasn't practical.

But now that we are in our own place, I am making up for it like mad. I've been working on a few projects (instead of packing) and painting up a storm (room photos to come at later date, since they are all napping).

Today I finished my advent calendar and Lily in cute wooden blocks. One of these days we will finally get around to finishing up the house, I promise you don't want to see it now.

Home Sweet Home

We closed on this little beauty this morning and move in on Saturday. It needs some TLC, but we are thrilled to finally have a home of our own and excited at the anticipation of each project---we have some fantastic ideas that can't wait to be put to good use. It's in a cute little neighborhood, and across the street from a planned park and walking distance to Sugarhouse and other shopping. We have plenty of space---and we love visitors so don't be shy about coming to see us!

Halloween

I asked William for "the magic words" when offering him a piece of his Halloween Candy. His reply? "Trick or Treat". I guess it sunk in this year.

Current Events and Family Fun

We’ve had a VERY eventful week.  Not only did we HAVE to hit up the SLC Library book sale (and go home with 50 books), but my younger brother, John, came home from his mission in Costa Rica. We had quite the party at the airport.

Silly Billy could not have been more excited.  All day long he kept talking about how we would see John and he would give him a hug.

The next few days were filled with Halloween parties galore.  With a baby duck and Lily Lamb, we made the perfect Farmer Family.

We also got both cute boys to snuggle in their puppy pjs. 

One day, I hope we can finally get them to like each other.  Hopefully sooner, rather than later. At this point, we’ll take what we can get (in this case, just posing for a picture was a bonus).

Sunday was my brother’s homecoming.  It was something we couldn’t really miss, so we packed up half the house and our sick twins and went anyway.  It was a blast to see everyone again since we don’t get out very often due to our current one-car and infant twin situation.

After, we went with my brother Phil and his family to walk around Gardner Village.  Liam LOVED all the spiders and pumpkins. We took the opportunity to get a family photo.  It was since discovered that it is IMPOSSIBLE to get a picture with all 3 kids looking decent, so our best one has Lily eating her dress and is missing half of William.

Today, we went with Grandma Karen, and Catherine and her children to Wheeler Farm.

This made Farmer Billy’s Day.

This has got to be his favorite place.  Big green tractors, running around a corn maze, animals, farmers, and pumpkins.  What more could a 3-year-old want?

Post-Babies Racing

Finally.  A non-baby post!  I ran the SoJo (South Jordan) Half Marathon over the weekend as my first real (5Ks don’t count) post-baby race.  It’s not quite the same as my last one, 2 months before I got pregnant.  Last time, I was in the greatest shape of my life, placed in my age group, got a 1:28 PR, and loved almost every minute of it.

Last weekend was less fun.  I basically didn’t sleep the night before, between pre-race anxiety, insomnia, and baby feedings (they usually go all night, figures the night before the race they would wake up a couple of times between them and ruin the schedule, right?). 

It started out by me stepping out of my car into a wet puddle.  Not only did I have wet feet, but it was really cold to start, and we had a strong headwind longer than I would have preferred, and lots of flat, suburbia views.  Not my favorite.  I personally prefer dry feet, rolling hills, and city or country vistas.  But, the course was 1/2 mile from my parents’ house, so they and 2 of my brothers came to see my at mile 9. 

Overall, I did enjoy the race, and even managed to come away without blisters, despite my wet feet at the start. But, boy am I sore! This definitely was my upper limit after having twins. I enjoyed the race, and will maybe even consider going next year. Half-Marathon massages and Chic-Fil-A lunch do a lot to sway my vote.  I ended up running a 1:47. 

Not bad considering my first ever half was a 1:45, and that I took 7 months off exercising and spent 3 of those flat on my back.  It will probably take me another year to get into better shape, and I probably won’t have the time for quality training and baby weight loss until I wean the twins next year.  I’m planning on 3-6 1/2s next year so I can have a real focus and continue to improve.  Next year’s goal will be to break 1:25 and I’ll just go from there.

Luckily, my belated push present is coming once we move next month.  A treadmill.  That will be great for days that babies are sleeping, I need speed work help, or it’s just too dark or cold for this SoCal girl to handle.  I foresee a lot of indoor running over the winter and I can’t wait.  :)

Surviving

We did it!!! We survived the first six months of twins!  Let me tell you, some of these days were pure survival just to make it through dinner and bedtime. Luckily now, we’re able to get out and about almost every day, get everyone (including me) dressed and fed at regular intervals, AND even occasionally go fun places like my parents’ house or the zoo.

Once or twice, we even all went running (literally) errands to the doctor and bank; though I prefer to do those things without having to buckle up all three kids and make sure I have a fully stocked diaper bag. We even finally paid off the tab for these $12K babies (after insurance, ugh!). Good thing Medicaid chipped in, since that saved us a few thousand at least.

I figured out the best way to make it through the day is to make everyone take a nap at the same time, even if it means Liam goes down at 11:30 and the twins only take a 30 minute nap (we’re in the process of nap-training---ick!).  Since we went through a non-napping phase, I’ve given up on trying to make Liam nap and so I just put him down for “not-so-quiet-time” after the babies go down. It just so happens that now he wants to take a nap every day.

I’m totally cool with that.

And we’re starting to get William used to the idea of siblings.

Sometimes he even gets excited to go feed them (because he gets to jump on the bed, lol) or have them come to the park (like I’d leave them home). He still mostly ignores them, though occasionally we can coerce him into giving out a hug or kiss. It’s pretty hard to resist cute faces like these:

The last six months have seriously flown by (or dragged on, depending on the day).  I can’t believe we made it this far, and am so excited by the changes we have seen and those still to come in the near future.

Like sitting up.

Caleb does a lot better than Lily, even starting to sit up without using his hands for support, whereas Lily sits up in a very flexible version of tummy time.  Or just eats her socks.

And they’re starting to fight over toys.  Though by “fighting” I mean that Lily tries to take whatever she decides she wants since Caleb is still very uncoordinated.

They’ve gone back to the smaller percentiles…we thought for sure Caleb would pass up William, but he’s slowed down at only 14 lbs., 5 oz. Lily is even smaller at 13 lbs., 12 oz.. Both just over 25 inches, with Lily being a bit longer, and Caleb having a slightly bigger head. But considering they were born small and early, and their brother was on the smaller side his first year, no one is that concerned.  Especially thinking that all that growth was entirely on breast milk, and that they sleep through the night a fair amount, it’s not surprising that they aren’t as big as some other babies. I love thinking that all that chubby cuteness was grown entirely by me.

But alas, we’ve had to resign to the fact that solids would come into their lives.  I tried to put it off as long as possible (would YOU want to spoon feed two babies and pay for all that? Not me.), but we decided to give in this weekend and start with the mushy goodness that is rice cereal.  Lily isn’t a fan, but Caleb gladly finishes her portion.  It’s just as crazy as I anticipated with all the preparation, cleanup, and supervision (of an older toddler, too) that you can imagine. I’ve even pureed a bunch of vegetables and fruit to save us money on these double portions. I hate this phase…hoping we move into finger foods before too long.

I’m excited to see what the next six months brings to the Garff family.  With Steve’s new job and a move next month, we’re thrilled with the changes to come and the craziness that will accompany it.  Especially once we get two mobile babies…Stay tuned!

Silly Billyness: Lawn Mower

Silly Billy has always been a fan of the lawn mower.  He got a bubble mower for his last birthday and it has been a big hit. 

Most recently, he has decided to “help” Steven mow the lawn.  And by “help”, I actually mean follow him around the entire lawn for an hour until it is completely finished. Silly Billy actually cried because Steve delayed out the edger and was talking to me instead.

He’s done the entire lawn 2 weeks in a row…I wonder how long it will take until he gets bored? It’s nice because it gives me some time with just the twins (or if the twins are asleep, my projects).

And of course, William is rarely seen without his farmer hat. This kid cracks me up.