Dear Fellow Utahns,

Seersucker is cute and awesome.

Seersucker suits on a baby are the most adorable thing ever.

So, if you happen to see two little boys wearing seersucker suits to church on Easter Sunday, you might want to say they look adorable...or something.

Ok. In all seriousness, I do not expect lavish praise of my children's Sunday apparel. Usually, they wear onesies with cotton pants, so I would not want to be judged on our Sunday dress. However, I was a little surprised that most people in Utah have never heard of seersucker before. I mean, it's a pretty big deal in South Carolina.

Full disclosure: Nathan had never heard of seersucker until last week. Who did I marry!?

Eliza: The Future Comedian

If you are friends with me on Facebook, you have probably read a number of Eliza's quotable quotes. Nathan wants me to make sure they are all written down on the blog, though, so she can read them 10 years from now and realize just how funny (and clever) she was at age 3.

Here are some of the highlights:

Eliza to her friend, Ruby: "Do you want to have fun? Just pretend you're me. I am so much fun."

(After watching Mary Poppins)

Eliza: "I can't clean, Mom. I'm too shy."
Cecilia: "Why does that mean you can't clean?"
Eliza: "I don't want my toys to see me."

Eliza: "Are you really tired or something?"
Me: "Kind of. Why?"
Eliza: "Because you look like you got hit by a ton of bricks."

Me: "Eliza, did you brush your teeth before getting into bed?"
Eliza: "No...and you can stop judging me!"

After dinner, I gave Eliza and me each an Oreo. 
Eliza: "Can I have half of your Oreo, Mom?"
Me: "Well, we each get one."
Eliza (walks over and breaks my Oreo in half and begins to eat it): "You need to learn how to share, Mom! This is how you make friends."

Eliza to a random stranger at Walmart who came over to touch the babies: "My mom doesn't like it when you touch our babies. Didn't you read our sign!?"

Eliza: "Mom-- I just love you. I really love you."
Me: "Aww...thanks, Eliza! You are so sweet."
Eliza: "Some days I don't love you, but today, I REALLY love you."

Eliza: "Mommy Eden Robbins!! Are you listening to me!?"
(Yes, her middle name is Eden.)

Eliza (whispers): "I see that my daddy is gone. Would you like to lay down by me? It would be our secret."

Eliza: "Mom, you need a stepsister so you don't have to mop the floors anymore."

Eliza: "Mama is so dang-ing hot, dang-ing hot!"
Me, obviously surprised: "Where did you hear that!?"
Eliza: "Daddy." 

Eliza (after she'd been crying): "Can you help my eyeballs? My eyeballs are dripping."

Eliza: "My body is telling me I am very sleepy. Your body is telling you that you are sleepy too and that you want to lay down by me and give me a little bit of chocolate milk. Got it?"

I hope those made you smile :) She really is an amazing little girl!

We've Been Busy

Adjusting to our life in Utah has taken some time, but we are incredibly happy here in Springville. As you can see, my blog posts have become less frequent. When I was pumping and nursing 5-6 times a day, I had several opportunities to blog. Once I stopped pumping in January (I still can't believe I made it 14 months), my posts dramatically decreased. There just isn't much time! These days, I spend my days chasing two 15 month old boys and trying to entertain a three-year-old girl. By 8 o'clock, I am so exhausted that I just want to sit and read or watch mindless television. I am trying to remember that I really love blogging and that my children will enjoy reading all about our lives one day. I hope that motivates me to do better about keeping this family journal of sorts.

Currently, Eliza is crying in her bedroom. We are trying our best to get her back on a normal sleep schedule, but it has been difficult. After we first moved, we let her stay up past her normal bedtime of 7:30/8:00 because things were unsettled, the environment was different, and she really didn't seem too tired. However, the bedtime of 8:30-9:00 PM has slowly crept up to 10:00-10:30. Obviously, that isn't an acceptable bedtime for a three-year-old. With daylight savings, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to reset her internal clock. Not so. Not so.

Last night, she went to bed at 7:30 and cried in her room until after midnight. Of course, Nathan and I went in and talked to her countless times, but she just didn't want to go to sleep. She expects to go to bed when Nathan and I go to bed, which just isn't going to happen. Ezra and Elliott are perfect sleepers, and although I realize Eliza doesn't have to be perfect about sleeping 12-13 hours a night, I would appreciate having a couple hours of alone time before going to bed each night. I think every parents deserves a few quiet hours to relax and recoup their energy after a hard day's work.

Because Eliza went to sleep even later than usual, she was terribly grumpy today. I know she needs an earlier bedtime (she really becomes deliriously crazy if she is up past 8), so that makes listening to her scream and cry a little easier. Being a parent is a hard job, but I really know I am lucky that Ezra and Elliott go to bed with no complaints and wake up happy each morning. Eliza used to be the same way, and I am confident she will find her natural sleep rhythm again.

In the meantime, I'm praying her admirable amounts of determination soon diminish. She definitely doesn't give up!

Did I Do That?

Ezra and Elliott love to run around the house, chasing one other. It's so much fun to hear their squeals of complete happiness as they see each other and then run away. The past month, we have enjoyed the peace of mind that the layout of the condominium provides. We can shut all of the bedroom doors and allow the boys to roam freely without worry of them going up or down stairs and opening cabinets. It's lifted a burden of worry from my shoulders, and I can relax knowing that they are safe while I cook in the kitchen.

And then that peace of mind was ruined when Ezra and Elliott learned how to open the doors last week. Ezra stands on his tippy toes and pulls the handle down on the door. Elliott then comes to his aid and pushes the door open once the mechanism is released. It's a real problem.

This morning, I watched the pair of them open up their bedroom door and resumed cleaning the kitchen. I knew there wasn't anything for them to get into, so I worried about them playing unsupervised. I then heard Ezra slam the door and had visions of tiny little fingers getting caught. I opened the door and went to pick up Ezra, who is the definitive door slammer. He squirmed out of my reach and immediately ran back to the door and shoved it shut.

Elliott instantly started screaming. His left hand was caught where the door and the hinge connect. I immediately pulled the door open, scooped him up, and tried to assess the damage as he screamed. Ezra, seeing his brother in pain, threw himself on the ground and screamed as well.

I could immediately tell that the tip of his pinky finger was broken. The knuckle on his ring finger was bruised and bleeding, but the finger wasn't broken. My sister broke my finger (twice) by slamming it inside of a car door, so I know it could have been worse. However, in the moment, it was pretty stressful. My adrenaline was pumping, and I felt like my heart was going to come out of my chest. Fortunately, Elliott calmed down and the swelling went down pretty quickly.

After some pain meds and a little bandage (essentially taping the pinky to his other finger), Elliott was a happier camper. The finger is less bruised looking, although it is still noticeably red and swollen.

Meanwhile, Ezra seemed to know he was guilty of something and skulked around the house, looking pitiful. Poor little guy! It was totally an accident, of course.

We survived our first injury. Thank goodness. I hope there aren't too many more in the future!

Utah, Utah, Utah

We're here!

And we're homeless!

Well, we're not actually homeless, but we have no place of our own just yet. Thankfully, we are blessed with some pretty amazing friends who had a number of empty rooms we could use for the week. We had other friends offer for us to stay with them, and we feel incredibly fortunate to know so many amazing people. Nathan and I have been nonstop house-hunting, and we know we will find the perfect place sooner or later. In the meantime, we are going to rent. We cannot wait to unpack all of things and have a good routine here in Utah.

We miss Othello. We miss our friends, our church, and our family. Eliza is really missing preschool, playdates, and lunch trips to Burger King with our friends. The twins miss all of the extra attention from Grandma and Grandpa. Life is different.

Fortunately, we have In-N-Out milkshakes and fries in Utah to drown our sorrows in.

The Sweetest Voice

Over the past few weeks, Ezra has begun to "talk." He looks right at us, moves his hands as if he is really trying to convey meaning, and mutters words in the softest, most precious voice. It never ceases to melt my heart. He usually stops talking when a camera is around, but tonight, I finally manged to get some of his chatter on video.

Ezra apparently has a lot to say. I could have recorded hours of this and never gotten bored. He's been having a hard time with teething, so it was nice to have a quite moment with our littlest E (even though he was out of bed late due to teething pains/screams/tantrums..).

Walking With Confidence

Ezra and Elliott have mastered walking. They love visiting Great-Grandma Robbins because they can practically run up and down the hallways of the nursing home. All of the elderly residents love to see cute little babies walking around, so it's a win-win situation.

Here is Ezra:

And Elliott:

In addition to walking, Elliott also learned how to climb yesterday. According to my parents, I was a little monkey. My ability to climb came in handy due to my father's disability. He couldn't lift me into the crib, so he would ask me to climb in--and I would. My grandmother loves to tell me this story, and my mother confirms that I was an awesome baby (just so everyone knows). Unlike their mother, Ezra and Elliott both try to climb out of their cribs (never into them), and I am legitimately worried Elliott will figure out how to escape one night. Today, he crawled up onto the brick fireplace and jumped into a laundry basket.

I'm in trouble.

Also, I love my kids. I don't know if I say that often enough, but they make me so insanely happy. It's been an incredibly rough week, but their goofy antics today reminded me how incredibly blessed Nathan and I are.