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.

Moving Debacle

Our condo was supposed to close December 15th. Things weren't ready by then, so our date was moved to December 31st and then to January 15th. Well, the documents we were waiting on were not ready until this morning. Today is the 16th.

We missed our closing date deadline by ONE DAY. 

Because we were buying a HUD home, there were pretty strict deadlines and a number of hoops to jump through. It has been incredibly stressful, but we were told everything would work out and we would close in time. Alas, that was not the case. Our loan officer was 12 hours too late. I cannot even believe it. After three months of planning and countless hours on the phone with our lender and realtor, our family is homeless. 

I'm trying to see that there could be something better for our family. The reality is that envisioning something better is pretty difficult. The condo was a steal, and it was a dream. Becca and Kyle live in the complex, I could see Eliza's future school from the window, and the neighborhood is quaint and friendly. It was everything I wanted. We've lost our earnest money and the money we spent on extension fees--but even worse than that, I feel like we have lost the perfect home. We are heartbroken. 

Of course, I know there are worse things that can happen in life. Nathan and I are still incredibly blessed. He has been living in Provo without us for the last two weeks (which has been a struggle of its own), and we just assumed he would move our possessions into the condo and come and get us. Thankfully, my friend Julie has been nice enough to let us park our trailer in her driveway and our wonderful realtor, Stephanie, is determined to find us a better home.

I'm sure in a few months, I will understand why this happened the way it did. Right now, though, I am really hurting. I miss Nathan, and I am sad that I don't have much to look forward to. Where do we go from here? 

Fortunately, my friends and family are supportive, positive, and encouraging. They know just what to say to lift me when I am feeling down. Some friends also know just what to bring over:

Thanks, Jason and Natalie!

Date Night!

Nathan and I made a New Year's Resolution to go on more dates. So far, we are doing a pretty good job about getting out of the house. This time, we did a date swap with Becca and Kyle. I feel completely comfortable leaving the kids with Becca, so I didn't feel stressed or worried while Nathan and I were out. We went to Olive Garden and had a great time!

I ordered a Shirley Temple and then was super awkward when the waitress looked at me like I was joking. I panicked and told her, "Yes, I'm seven." And this is probably part of the reason why Nathan and I don't go on many dates.

Christmas 2011 / Christmas 2012

To tell the truth, I hardly remember last Christmas. It's times like these that I am grateful that I keep a blog. I went back and read over the posts regarding Christmas and thought, "Oh yeah. THAT happened." The twins were less than four weeks old last year, and we had just entered their colicky phase.They have grown so much in 12 months, and my heart aches to think about how tiny they once were.

That being said, they are the cutest toddlers ever. I am so glad Nathan and I aren't waking up every two hours for feeding and that I actually will remember Christmas this year :) The pictures were a real reminder that a lot can change in a year.