We made it!

Turns out, delayed flights sure put a kink in plans don't they?

Brooks' dad's flight was delayed a whole 12 hours.

So INSTEAD of me driving slowly behind everyone with just the twins and going at my own pace, Brooks had to take the moving van early in the morning with Bronson and Camden while I waited for the plane to come in. We needed the moving truck up to St. Louis fast since a few young men from our church here were going to meet him at a certain time to help unload it.

Once RA finally made it (the kids were so excited) we ended taking off 6 hours after Brooks did. 

Me in the Yeti with 7 kids..... two of them nursing newborns

and RA driving our Honda with Emerson.

Leaving Greenville was so sad.

I SPECIFICALLY told RA that he had to follow me. He assured me he could get there himself by just buying a map at a gas station (he doesn't have a phone). I told him NO and to stay right me but juuuuuust in case I gave him my phone number and our address if he had to stop and call me. Plus, Brooks and I weren't sure the Yeti would even MAKE it to St. Louis, so I needed him to be there with me if we got stranded. 

He only passed me a few times taking off down the highway and me having to speed to cut in front of him. (Who's leading who?!?!?)

I also had to warn him that with nursing babies I had to stop every few hours. 

Yes, to feed the babies, but ALSO to get me out of the metal box with all the noise. My kids don't travel well, we have zero electronics in that old van and no charger to plug our's in.

Here we stopped at Burger King. Poor iley just broke out with baby acne.

(on the PLUS side, it helped us tell the difference between the two)

By the time we got there at midnight I told myself I wasn't going to get in my van with the young kids for a very very long time. Possibly their whole lifetime. We'll see.

I was pleasantly surprised to have the house organized enough by Brooks, Bronson and Camden with all the boxes in the right rooms and most of the beds set up. Phew, I was ready to collapse.

The next night Brooks and RA took the boys to their first Cardinals game!!!!!

And apparently they scalped the right tickets because they made it on the lucky row that won giftcards to a local restaurant. I think Emerson was MORE excited about making it on the jumbo-tron though!!!!

The field is amazing with the view of the Gateway Arch.

I got busy trying to unpack (between the never ending feedings of the twins) and Brooks put the boys to work in between golf outings with RA.

However, they STILL had time to explore our neighborhood.

One time Emerson came back and told RA he could catch a baby rabbit.

RA didn't believe him and told him he would pay him $20 if he REALLY could.

Next thing I know Emerson comes back with TWO of them in his hands!

Yes, it took a LOT of skill to catch baby bunnies that can't move or see!

NOW PUT THEM BACK!!!!!!! (which he did)

I LOVED all the space in the house and enjoyed feeling "fancy" in this home that resembles a beach house. RA was put on baby holding duty.....which I so desperately needed. He could get these girls asleep in NO time.

He didn't even charge double when holding both. :)

The kids were so sad to see RA leave. On our way back from the airport after dropping RA off we decided to stop by the zoo. It's free here, so kinda a no-brainer.

It was raining too, which made it more fun.

Awesome fish.

I think hippos are so cool

The twins slept the whole time in the stroller but Kellyn and Everly still got tired of walking. Thankfully they have such good older siblings.

We saw the Children's Zoo.......Emerson needed his name by it and I LOVE the photo-bomber.

My favorite part was the penguins though. We were so close to them we felt their water and even pet a penguin! Come to find out AFTER we weren't supposed to, but it was cool..... literally. FREEZING in that room

RIGHT by Iris' head.

Brooks and I were walking behind with the younger kids. All of a sudden we hear our kids LOSING it with laughter up ahead by the monkeys. Then a pause. Then it happened again.

THIS little monkey friend sure enjoyed digging his finger in his hiney then sticking it in his mouth. Seriously, I wished I video taped my kids laughter!

Fourth of July was spent with our traditional funnel cakes (on STL Cardinals plates of course) and then the older kids went to Six Flags (we got season passes) to watch the fireworks there. I needed just to get the little kids to bed and FINALLY finish unpacking my house. I was honestly running on fumes.

What a RELIEF to finish unpacking my LAST box that night.

ONLY to get a phone call the very next day from our landlord saying we had 30 days to find another place to live!!!!

They never asked how many kids we had until after we moved in. When they asked, we told them 10. Turns out Missouri's occupancy laws say the house we are in only "fits" 9 total. So we are three over. Our house is HUGE but the law goes by how many sq. ft. are in the bedrooms and since they don't consider the HUGE fourth floor loft a bedroom (where the boys' room is) we don't qualify.

Sooooooo, here we go, back to packing up again.

Last month in Greenville

With school out and all the kids at home while trying to pack and nurse infants you would THINK we wouldn't get much else done.

But the kids had other things in mind. 

The older three boys would golf a lot. Three or four mornings of the week we would just drop them off at the golf course and pick them up four hours later. I just love thinking of them walking together and all the things they talked about. #bonding

One day Camden came home with a turtle from the pond there. He was pretty excited.

The turtle? Not so much.

My summer beauties..... These two are the CUTEST, CLOSEST (and SNEAKIEST) sisters.

I threw away the Father's Day cards before I could take a picture of a few gems and all the comments on how dad makes them mow the lawn, etc. But I DID snag this picture. 

In Primary at church their leader had the kids guess who's Daddy's hands were in the picture. 

My kids came home and said there's was the EASIEST! According to Emerson, "Dad's messed up finger gave it away." Which is WHY he now wears a sylicone wedding ring to fit up over his giant knuckle.

The twins just kind of go with whatever. They have no choice.

Like when Wynn sat next to Royce in the Yeti......sometimes you will just get drawn on....

with permanent marker. #ithappens

I think this is how Wynn feels about our family sometimes....

Dad took the kids peach-picking in Greer. 

The girls posed with their lovely peaches while the boys were having a rotten peach-throwing war.

 Reminds me of all the rotten apple wars me and my family had growing up by an apple orchard. But my kids didn't have the luxury of sporting a garbage can lid as a shield.

Every Wednesday has been deemed "Food Fighters" Day. The kids and I LOVE any kitchen or baking shows. And I DID need to go through my food, so we would set up rounds with a theme. 

"10 minutes to make your best carrot dish" next round something with apples, or bacon or best sandwich, etc.  Everyone in the first round. Four move onto the second and then two in the finals with one winner. Obviously, there must me a winner and losers, right?

The ones eliminated are then judges with me. I've eaten some pretty interesting stuff. 

But nothing quite made me as gaggy as Royce's mixture.
The theme was animal crackers.

(I'm a master at smiling while choking, and then distracting them while I spit it out)

There's a LOT of lessons they've learned in these competitions:
1) as far as vanilla is concerned, less is best and more is lethal
2) turns out Hershey chocolate syrup DOESN'T go well on everything
3) you almost have a guaranteed winning dish if you add bacon and mom is the judge
4) eggs CAN and do explode in microwaves
#lifelessons

While moving, everyone was so nice to us. I had people come pick up kids right and left to take them to movies, throw them tea parties, take them swimming, going away parties, etc. We even went to two different trampoline parks for free because of people's generosity. Our good friend owned Gravitopia and let us all barge in. We will miss them like crazy (like all our friends!)

Another time after I picked up the boys from golfing Emerson ran in really excited and started unzipping his golf bag. In the little ball-zipper-part he had shoved in 4 crawdads (or crawfish.....depending on where you're from).

They would put them in that pan to "battle".....Gladiator style.

Entertained the kids for a looooooong time. 

But you had to be VERY careful around their pinchers Camden told us. From personal experience he said "it felt like needles going through my finger and connecting!"

They researched online how to cook them too. Just what I wanted to do.....unpack my giant pot to cook seafood. Kinda my least favorite smell.

But they were so proud of themselves and thought the bright red color was so cool

They tried them and actually LOVED them. Bronson said, "This is amazing!"

Which only ENCOURAGED them to look for more crawdads the next time they went golfing.

They came home the next day with 45.
(I've got such handsome boys)

You have to rinse them a bunch of times or something. Then they would devide them into medium, small and large. I'm telling you, crawdads took over my kitchen for a while.

They cooked them, divided them and then set some aside for Brooks when he got home.

(Don't you love the crawdad-parts that were in my sink-drainer-thing) #theThingsIdo

But crawdads are the gift that keeps on giving!!!! When your toys are packed up, you can resort to playing with crawdad claws and legs that were broken off for a few days afterward!!!!

DESPITE every picture I ever post on my blog indicating my kids are never dressed or their hair is always homeless looking..... I promise, I do get them ready sometimes.

All my kids together before church. #love

It's official.....we got the 24 foot truck early on a Monday morning and had it filled by that night.

The "plan" was to pick up Brooks' dad from the airport that night at midnight and start on the road the next morning around five. We planned on his dad driving the moving truck, Brooks driving the Yeti with 7 kids and me driving the smaller car with the twins and Aleeya (to entertain the twins). The idea was ALL Brooks' and I was MORE then thrilled to go along with it. In fact I was REALLY looking forward to driving a SMALL car (a luxury I never have) with only three kids!!!!

Well things don't always go according to plan, do they.....

"What's it like?"

I get asked that question so many times (refering to having twins) along with "How's it going?"

Besides being the snuggliest little things and a liiiiiiittle piece of double heaven, another word comes to mind...... Exhaustion.

And why my family likes taking pictures of their sleeping mom/wife is beyond me. But they definitely show the OTHER side of having twins.

The above picture is called"You take one, I take the other"

Around 2 or 3 weeks all newborns stop their sleeping-all-the-time and being content phase.

So yes, there was more crying. Usually one would cry and the other would either sleep through it or sit there awake as if listening. Then that one would start crying and the other would stop.

At least SOMEONE was listening to their problems.

Brooks commented, "Theeeeeere's a lot of crying around here now". #totally

There were a few times when they would both get all fired up though.

On the flip side, they are really SO fun. I really REALLY like being a "twin mom". It's a new adventure with double the excitement and double the warm fuzzies in your belly when you watch them sleep.

And DOUBLE the cheer when BOTH TAKE A BOTTLE FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!

Wynn played with her's for a while before she got it down, but Iley knew exactly what to do with it.

Everyone was cheering so loud for them.

(It kinda looks like iley is smiling below. haha)

I was telling my mom that I DEFINITELY get a lot less done. As in my productivity percentages have plummeted....to negative proportions. Which is KIND OF tricky when you're trying to pack and do all the "last times" the kids wanted to do.

I'm also not a pro at ALL at the whole tandem feeding thing so I feed one at a time, burp, then do it all over to the other baby. And during the night when one wakes up, I feed and burp. Then when she's kind of sleepy again while burping I ever-so-softly lay her down only to pick up her SLEEPING sister to feed. The whole time I'm thinking, "WHY IN THE WORLD would I wake up a sleeping baby?!?!" (Answer: to keep them on the same schedule....and to avoid one waking up 1 hour later which would mean ZERO sleep) It's kind of a time-sucker. I felt bad because a lot of their awake time during the day was spent with their sisters so I could keep packing, but they didn't seem to mind. Afterall it's always a lot more fun to play "house" and "Mommies" with real babies then toy babies, right?

They DO look like little dollies though.

My friend monogrammed these swimsuits for them. I LOVE them.

ILEY always looks so much bigger then WYNN in pictures, but they actually weigh the exact same. (8lbs.4oz)

Maybe Wynn just carries her weight better? or ILEY has hollow bones? I don't know, but they are so so cute.

They are pretty good at going with the flow around here. Not like they have a choice or anything.
Nothing says "comfty pillow" then a pee-filled-figeting diaper!

I love their aware-ness of each other.

As exhausting as it does feel sometimes it isn't as "bad" as other twin-moms had warned me. In fact, it's been a LOT easier then some of the things I was told. 

They cry sometimes to fall asleep but now are pretty good at falling asleep on their own....and usually end up touching each other somehow when I go in to peek at them. It's like a comfort to them I think. However, not AS comforting when you are the twin sleeping and your sister wakes you up by kicking her feet in your face.

But it IS nice to have someone mutually hold in your binki for you!

I know this "newborn" time is so short but I can honestly say I took in every newborn-smell and snuggle time I could. I took FULL advantage of this time knowing how short-lived it is.

They. are. the. best.