We're About Four Months Behind. And Unashamed.

Remember that one time how as soon as Frozen came out, everyone went all ga-ga about the song "Let it Go"? And now everyone is super tired of it and wants everyone to just let it go? (See what I did there?)

Well, we never saw it in the theaters. And because I'm a huge fan of real actual Disney movies and I knew I was going to love it, I just went out and bought it the day it came out. And Katie and I both instantly fell in love with it. And we might be obsessing. Just a little bit.

For one thing, my mom gave me the soundtrack. For another, Katie has watched the movie about eight times in the two weeks we've had it. For a third thing, any time we're doing anything, anything at all, we're singing songs from the movie. I'll be sitting there, changing boy diapers, and Katie will come over and say, "Hey Mom! Can we sing the "window is open, so's that door" song?" And so it begins. We don't usually stop until we've gone through the entire soundtrack.

And even when we're not being a big family Broadway production, Katie is constantly singing the songs. If she's in the bathroom, she's singing "Love is an Open Door." If she's not, she's marching regally around the house with a blanket over her shoulders singing "Let it Go" at the top of her lungs. Mom, I know you're going to reference a certain little redhead singing "Part of Your World" at that age, so I will do it for you. I think I know who's daughter Katie is.

That's how amazing my daughter is.

As for the boys, well, I have some news. It's terrifying, adorable, ridiculous, and spectacular. Peter . . . has taken THREE STEPS IN A ROW. Pray for me, everyone.

Tears upon leaving the park today.

The hooligans are always trying to escape!

Peter the flirt. I'm not kidding. He's a flirt.

"Here, Mom. Let me take a selfie."

Captain Hook

Peter Pan

"Mom? Is that the outside? Can we try it, Mom?"

And there you have it. I live in a mad house. But at least there's light at the end of the tunnel. There will be sunshine someday.

Almost-Spring Shenanigans and Tomfoolery

Once upon a time, there was a slight amount of sunshine and everyone got all excited for springtime. And then it was not anymore. Blegh. The end.

You know, I was planning to write this a lot earlier in the day, but then the boys were having a hard time with their nap (on account of we are ALWAYS sick) so I didn't get the chance. And now I'm all tired and my brain disappeared, and all the thoughts I had during the day of things I should write (it was going to be very eloquent and intelligent-sounding) are gone. Alas. So you're getting the chocolate-fueled drivel that comes out of my brain after I finally get my children to bed. Sorry.

Luckily for you, I remembered to write down some pretty good Katie-isms in the last couple of weeks.

(Looking at her pansies): "Look, Mom! My panties are growing!"

(Trying to be Baby Jesus): "I disappeared in my swollen clothes!"

(While flushing the potty): "Goodbye poopie! Have fun storming the castle!"

(Upon my attempting to comb her hair): "No, Mom. Jesus wears his hair like this."

(Singing at breakfast): "Two little princesses, sitting on a speckled log, eating the most delicious dress. Yum yum!"

Aren't they great? That's my girl. She's super ridiculous. Want to know one of my favorite things, though? She's teaching her brothers to be ridiculous. For example, she likes to play "Dr. Katie," but not on her brothers, as most older siblings would. She likes to practice on me. And she employs her assistants, Nurse Joshy and Nurse Peter.

And now, even when Katie's not around, the boys will find her little Fisher Price stethoscope and blood pressure cuff and come over and start whacking me with them. Good little medical assistants.

On the flip side, they're very affectionate boys. Joshy is the king of all Momma's boys. He always wants to be holding me, rubbing his snot on my cheek, and trying to take bites of whatever sweater I happen to be wearing. He's almost gotten giant holes in some of them. But he's very sweet and loving and has a big 'ole toothy grin whenever he sees me coming.

Peter is very affectionate, but with slightly less drool and chomping (mostly because he doesn't have as many teeth). When I pick him up after his nap or when he hasn't held me in a while, he wraps his arms around my neck and gives me a big squeeze, and while Joshy's affection is usually snot-related, Peter will just climb up on my lap and press his cheek to mine.

Of course, Peter's affections also translate to his brother. Until recently, we let the boys sleep in the same bed just at night, because they like to fall asleep touching each other. Actually, they really like to cuddle. Unfortunately, however, Peter has started the process toward needing less sleep during the day, and he now takes longer to sleep at night. Which means that while Josh is ready to hunker down at bed time, Peter wants to roll over on top of his brother and smack him in the head repeatedly.

Granted, a lot of the time, it's actually a lot cuter than that. He rolls over to spoon Josh and hugs him around the waste, but apparently he hugs him too tight and Josh gets mad. Or maybe it's because he's constantly stealing Joshy's binky and smacking him with it . . .

Either way, on more than one occasion have I seen the boys snuggled up together and seen Peter with one hand on his own head, and his other hand rubbing Joshy's head.

I'm officially okay with having twins.

Detox Week

That's what my friend calls the few days after Grandma goes home: detox. On account of we've all stayed up way too late and had too many treats and parties and not enough sleep. Gagh.

And I know you've all been sitting hunched over your computers, weeping and hitting the refresh button over and over again waiting for me to write on my blog. So that's my excuse.

On the up-side, we've had a pretty fantastic last week with Grandma. She got here on March 7, and Katie decided right then and there that she was going to be superglued to Grandma's side the entire week. When we put her to bed that night, she said, "Good night, Grandma! I'm going to wake you up tomorrow!" She never failed to keep that promise.

I know right? We don't look anything alike!

We didn't do that much out of the ordinary while she was here, but our regular business was way more fun. For example, she seemed to bring the sunshine with her, and Katie got to actually ride her bike a little bit. We went shopping, read probably a bazillion stories, and, between Mom treating us and the various birthdays, ate a lot of food.

One thing's for sure, though. My mom is super great. We went all crazy the week before she came because Mike had a week off between quarters. How did we spend it? Cleaning our house. Both because it needed it and because we really didn't want my mom to come here and spend a week cleaning our house. So what did she do? Wash most of the dishes while I was holding babies. Scrub the kitchen floor while I was taking a shower. Start my laundry while I was at the store. Geez, Mom. Do you have to be so awesome? Next time, I'm going to make a schedule full of crazy fun things to go out and do so that you won't just come in and clean my house. Also, I sure love you.

While she was here, she had a birthday (yay!) and also Mike had a birthday (yay!), so there was an abundance of cake. For Mom, I made vanilla-almond cupcakes with white chocolate frosting. They were like magic. I'ma have to make them again. For Mike, well, let's just say OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM. Grilled chicken with goat cheese and lemon butter sauce, mint moose tracks and caramel caribou ice cream, and angel food cake (which I make from scratch because baking is the one thing I know I can do right). Yeah, you're jealous. Now I have approximately four holidays' worth of decorations in my kitchen. I should probably take several of them down.

I just saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars with that present right there that he's holding.

In my effort to distract myself from my mom leaving, we got all crazy on the new healthy resolutions train. For example, Mike convinced me that Joshy's hair was getting a little gender-neutral. Heaven forbid his MAN child get confused with a girl.

The best part? Those faces they're making in the "after" picture is what they automatically do whenever I point the camera at them. Turns out that having a mom who frequently (some might venture to say "excessively") goes on picture-taking binges results in kids who know how to pose. Score one for the Mommy!

That night, after the kids were in bed, Mike and I had a goal-setting meeting (cue forboding music). The results? We're forcing ourselves into some new healthy-eating habits and some exercise, and we're continuing our 30 minutes a day scripture challenge, but we're starting the New Testament. (We just finished a Book of Mormon challenge where we read 10 pages a day, but I think 30 minutes will be better.) I'm totally jazzed about reading the New Testament (I haven't done it seriously since, like, college), but the whole diet and exercise thing is not making me a particularly happy mommy. We're even doing it right, with no extremes, and we're still allowed moderate treats and snacks (you know, the healthy kind). But I've been an emotional eater for a long time. And just two days of this is already making me into crazy diet impatient mom. This is bad.

But I know that in the long run, this will be better. We'll be happier, have more energy, and, eventually, I might have good self-esteem again. Who knows? In the mean time, here are some adorable pictures of my family.

Happy (maybe for real this time) Spring! I'll try to be better now that we're getting back into real life and a routine and all that jazz. And hopefully the sun will finally cooperate and melt the giant snowbanks that are still there even though it got up into the 50s last week. Maybe.