Utah

We spent this past week in Utah for Brad and Alisha's wedding. It was exhausting from plane take-off (in Chicago) to plane landing (in California), but it was also a lot of fun to see family, friends, and eat Cafe Rio. Our first stop was Grandma Packer's house. They knew right away it was a good place to be.

The wedding was Friday night and although it was the end of a long day for them, they tried their best to be good little troopers. Grandma was a lifesaver and helped Kate take a little snoozer. As I mentioned, it was exhausting trying to cart 5 monthers around, but they were great to take their naps anywhere- Alisha's closet, grandma's bed, the car about a million times, Ryan and Alissa's bed. It was so fun to stay with Brock, Nicole and Lily. It was a little bittersweet, though, because it made us realize how much we miss them and that we won't all be going back to Chicago at the end of the summer. We will miss them, but they better come visit us in California.

All in all, great trip. It's always fun to visit Utah. It was a beautiful wedding (I wish I would have gotten more pictures) and it was great to meet our new sister, Alisha. I think it's official, though. In order to fit in with the Packer sister-in-laws, I will now be known as Alauren.

Chubby Babies

Something sad has been happening lately. I've been putting size 6 month clothes on my children and they are fitting snugly. Worse, Kate's dress for church on Sunday was 9 months. Let me remind you, they will turn five months tomorrow and I know that's probably normal but let me also remind you they were 4 pounds when they were born!! It's quite sad, but I will take these happy chubby babies any day! Speaking of chubbiness, we went to the doctor today to find out just how chubby. They are about the same size, each 25 inches long and head 42 inches. Ethan's still a teeny bit heavier, weighing in at 16 lbs 9 oz and Kate at 16 lbs 8 oz. Since Kate's a girl and supposed to be petite, that puts her in the 75th percentile for height and weight, leaving Ethan still in the 50th. The doctor says they are looking good, even Ethan's flat head seems to in the helmet clear. YAY! These are some shots we took waiting to go in. Ethan seems to remember his last shots well, while Kate is still unsuspecting.

Nothing New

I realized I did have some pictures that I hadn't posted. The first were taken after church at my parent's house. Finally, a family shot. Three of four looking at the camera is pretty dang good. These were taken at our apartment this past week. After bath... reading time... I love this video. This is how Kate smiles. She doesn't really know how to calmly smile. If you get her to smile, it is like you have just told her she has the keys to Tiffany's, every time. And to be honest, she smiles a lot. She is quite the happy baby. We have spent all week packing. Luckily, Greg's mom was here to help out and she and Greg got about half of it all packed. We still have lots to do, but we should be able to get it all packed before Wednesday when we leave for Utah for Brad's wedding. The twins and I will be heading straight to California after that, so we'll be saying goodbye to Chicago then!

Boring Update

Sorry for the delay in posts. It has been a CRAZY couple of weeks and I don't know that we've taken a single picture. I don't think I've posted since Greg finished the bar. Well, he has- earthquake and all. The epicenter to the 5.4 quake was about 10 miles away from where he took it and I'm sure some day he'll look back and laugh at the sight of 1500 crazy-stressed test-takers scrambling under their desks as the giant lights swing above him and the proctors trying to push their way through, but I don't think laughter and bar will come in the same sentence for a long time. After the bar, Greg and I searched for an apartment and Greg found us one right in the heart of Old Town Pasadena. It will either be the funnest year of our life or I'll be screaming to get out a year from now. It has a little loft which I am really excited about and we will be welcoming any and all guests. Price of admission: a dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, which is less than a block away! We then headed off to Minnesota for 5 days to hang out with Greg's fam and after a proper showing off session at church, we finally headed back to Chicago, Janet in tow. She's here to help out while I have had my surgery. My surgery was yesterday morning and seems to have gone quite well. I'm still in the hospital and a little drugged, so if this post doesn't make sense, I'm going to place the blame there. For those who didn't know, I had a surgery so that next time around I will not have to be on bedrest. The only bad thing is that I will have C-sections. The incision for this surgery is the same as a c-section, so I've gotten a little taste of what recovery will be like. With the help of some pretty strong drugs, hopefully, I'll be home by early this afternoon. As for the twins, they are getting cuter and cuter every day. Ethan is still a momma's boy and as long as I'm in sight, he is about as chill as a baby can get. Kate is our little drama queen. Sometimes she is so happy, she can hardly stand it. She smiles so big that it makes her whole body wiggle, but try delaying her feeding and she will let you know that she is not happy. Oh, I miss those babies!