Beach Haven

            It’s the most wonderful time of the year again:  The BHP holiday edition!  It's time to recap the end of 2018. Here we go!
            Just as usual, the first major event in October was General Conference.  However, with 2 new babies, I wasn't able to pay too close attention to the sessions.  It was hard for me to get used to having 4 children, and so I was pretty ragged.  But we loved watching our twins figure things out and how much that their sisters doted on them.
            Thankfully, we had a lot of help with the babies via the ladies in our ward.  They volunteered to take our older girls so that I could sleep, and loved to hold them on Sundays.
            The end of the month soon came and it was time for Halloween.  So we found costumes.  Enna decided that she wanted to be a witch for the second year in a row, Aijah wanted to be Rapunzel using the dress-up dress we had. Dallin was a clown fish using a knitted tail and hat, and Celeste was a mountain climber (we just put her in her snowsuit and called it good).  We then took them to the town square and the high school where the town holds trick-or-treat events.  On the way home, we did the homes on our street.  By the time we got home, they had a TON of candy.  I knew that I would have to monitor it carefully or it would be gone pretty quickly.
            A few days later, now the beginning of November, the kids and I took an adventure downtown for the annual reading kickoff that KUED puts on.  As the girls are actually old enough to be interested in the books for their stories and not just their pictures, I thought it would be fun.  And while it was fun, it was also extremely exhausting!!  There were a lot of people there, so making sure that the girls were able to explore while keeping them close and safe took a lot of wrangling.  I think that their favorite activity was creating air balloons.  They used coffee filters, fruit baskets, and pipe cleaners to build balloons and then send them up multiple times in the provided air chamber.  They were definitely entertained by that for probably 15-20 minutes.
            The other favorite activity they did was the Lego room where the blocks were half as big as they were.  Enna built a tower that was as tall as she was and then tear it down and build it up again.  I could tell that she was having a ball.  Meanwhile, Aijah busied herself climbing up and down the balcony in the middle of the room.  Before going home, they begged me to allow them to ride the train.  So we bought tickets and rode the train from the library back to our car.  When we arrived home, I put on a show for them so that I could rest a bit as I was definitely worn out.  I was glad they had fun though.
            A couple of weeks later, we had the fun of watching Enna in her first primary program.  She had a practice the day before the actual performance and did pretty well with her line.  However, the next day in front of all the ward she had a little of a freak out.  While she did say her line, right after she gave her primary teacher a hug as she was a bit scared.  It garnished a giggle from the ward, but I was proud of her for trying.
            Later in the month we had the fun of going up north to be with family for Thanksgiving.  We spent the morning with my mom's parents and siblings that were in town and enjoyed some breakfast with them.  There was actually quite a few family members there which made it extra fun.  I was able to see some cousins that I haven't seen for years.  As we had already committed with my aunt on my dad's side for the actual thanksgiving meal, we headed out to Ogden about lunch time.  There was a lot of family there as well, so that was also a bunch of fun.  There were lots of inside jokes shared and laughs at each other’s' expense (a typical Beach get together in other words).
            November turned into December and officially started off the Christmas season.  The first activity was our annual ward Christmas party.  As Ryan had to work, I was on my own with 4 kids.  However, the members of our ward were more than willing to help me out.  At one point, all four kids were in the hands of different individuals so I had to keep track of multiple people.  It was fun anyway though.
            As we got closer to Christmas, it was time for the fun treat of going to the airport to pick up my brother Matt who I hadn't seen in a little over a year and a half.  He was able to come over from Italy for a Christmas visit.  The plan was for him to stay with us through Christmas morning and then head north with my parents.
            After picking him up we had a nice chat and were able to spend time catching up on life.  He was able to tell me all about some of the fun places that he had been able to visit overseas.
            A day or so later, my parents came in from Virginia after driving for a long time and again a lot of the time was spent chit chatting about life and things that had been happening in our lives for the last little bit and playing a game or two.
            Finally, it was Christmas Eve.  We had the fun of hosting basically all of my family.  The only ones that were missing were my sisters (as they were both on the east coast for the holidays).  It was a bit crazy with that many people in the house, but we had a ton of fun playing games, eating food, and talking about life.  That night, we put people in every corner of the house.  We even had people sleeping in the kitchen!  We made it work though.
            The next morning, we spent about 2-2 ½ hours opening presents together.  There was everything from the goofy to the useful, but fun was had by all.
            With the gifts opened, we enjoyed some breakfast and then pretty much everyone took off.  We decided to wait a day to go up so that we could spend some family time.  It ended up being a good choice as some of us started feeling a bit ill.  So we took time to rest and recoup.
            The next day we headed up to spend some time with grandparents.  As usual there was a lot of activity at both locations, but still lots of food and fun.  As this was the twins' first Christmas, they weren't all too interested in presents, but that was OK.  We had fun watching them attempt to open presents.  I think they may have each opened one.  :)
            Finally, the month ended and it was time to celebrate the New Year.  Ryan had to work, and I didn't want to keep kids up until midnight, so we stayed home and celebrated individually.  It was so fun though.
            Well that does it for this issue.  We'll see you again next year!

            Hello all!  The time has come again for the Blackburner!  We are reviewing the end of summer and start of fall so let it begin!
            July was hot, hot, hot!  Normally this wouldn't bother me, but I was very pregnant and thus very uncomfortable already.  This was also something odd for me as even though my first pregnancy was about the same time line as this one, this one was worse.  My guess was because this time I had actually gained some weight and with twins coming, it was double the heaters.  I began counting down the days until September 6th (the scheduled C-section date).
            Luckily, there were activities to keep me busy.  The first was Independence Day.  We spent the morning at the parade catching candy, went home for lunch, and then just played together as a family at home until the fireworks would start that night.  Enna had a lot of fun riding her new bike to the parade and home again (her Blackburn grandparents had told us to open her birthday present early as it was a summer toy and they wanted her to have a chance to use it).
            About a week later, since we learned that my grandma's health was steadily declining, we decided to surprise her with a visit.  We made a zucchini cake and drove up north.  My aunts Dona and Steph were also in town so it was fun to see them.
            My grandma was excited to have some fun with Enna and Aijah and seemed to like the cake.  What was even more fun is that my mom decided last second to also fly in.  I didn't know she was coming until my aunt Dona mentioned she had landed.  I asked, “Landed?  Where?” and we all had a laugh about how I wasn't told about it.  Oh well, as mentioned she did decide last minute.
             The next week in honor of Pioneer Day, the two Grantsville stakes hosted a parade for the kids with a breakfast and games that followed.  I can't remember why, but for some reason I left later than everyone else.  Then when walking to the starting place, I went the wrong way.  So I went to the church to watch them arrive at the end of the parade.  One of Enna's older friends convinced her to ride in the tractor they had rather than on her bike, but she had fun all the same.
            After a meal of breakfast burritos, we played some games.  We pulled a handcart in a race, tossed buffalo chips (Styrofoam - don't worry), and fished for prizes.  It ended with a candy cannon (a lot of the candy got melted and tasted like ash, so not so fun in my opinion) that the kids seemed to enjoy, and then we went home to cool down.
            A few hours later we joined some of our friends at the Grantsville reservoir for some fun in the water.  The girls floated on canoes and tubes.  Fun was definitely had by all.
            About a week later, the hottest month of the summer came on:  August.  Our first adventure happened when a neighbor's rabbit wandered into our yard.  We learned it was in our yard by the neighbor kids coming to our door and asking if we had a pet rabbit.  I remembered that my friend had mentioned hers was missing, so I figured it was probably hers.  So I went outside to look.  The neighbor kids proceeded to chase it so that it was frightened under my car.  I had to stop them and tell them that bunnies needed calm, quiet, slow movements if we had any hope of catching it.  I then returned to the house for a carrot in hopes of luring it out from under the car.
            When I came back, I tried unsuccessfully to remove the rabbit.  She would come and nibble a bit and then back off when I tried to pull her toward me.  I soon gave up and decided to call the owner for backup (while asking the kids to stand around the car to encourage it to stay put).
            The owner soon arrived and after a brief back and forth chase, we were able to catch it under a container with the help of my neighbor.  My friend gratefully returned home with her pet.
            Throughout the whole endeavor my girls just sat back and watched.  Enna asked a few questions, but I learned she was a bit scared of the bunny when she stated, “the bunny will eat me!”  I turned my head to get out some giggles, then turned back and told her that rabbits were vegetarians and would not be interest in her.  She was still wary (as she is with all animals), but seemed satisfied that it wouldn't hurt her.
            The next week we had the opportunity to travel up to my aunt's ward so that we could sing with her in church.  As it was a song we had performed together once before in another ward, we weren't too worried about the fact that we hadn't had much time to practice together.  The morning of, we ran through it a couple of times, and called it as good as it would get.  The actual performance went pretty well, so I can't complain.  We then returned home to spend the rest of the day as a family (as everyone else already had plans for the day).
            Later that week we were joined by Hazel as her parents went on a date night.  Aijah taught her the fun of climbing on the couch (oh oh! Watch out Em!).  Needless to say she took to it right away.
            The last big event of the month was the baby shower that my visiting sisters threw for me.  I had already had one with family, but this one was mainly the ward.  There was a really good turn out and we were gifted a lot of diapers and wipes (which was greatly appreciated), and lots of cute boy's clothes.  It was a really fun day and I was glad that my mother and sister-in-law were in attendance and were warmly welcomed.  I felt we were finally ready for these new little additions to come.
            Finally the wait was almost over.  September came rushing in and we got the last things ready that we felt we needed to so that we could welcome the new ones home.  We had already scheduled the C-section to occur on the 6th (as our history proved that C-section was most likely the way the birth would happen).  We went in for our last ultrasound about a week before and according to the technician, Dallin (we finally settled on the name) was sitting right on my cervix.  The technician asked, “How are you not in labor right now?”  I just shrugged and figured it was just part of my body's quirks not to know how to do labor (hence always needing C-sections).
            The big day soon arrived.  We left for the hospital at 3:30am so that we could make it to the surgery on time.  We were excited and nervous (as we normally are) and before we knew it, we were being wheeled into the operating room.
            After letting the numbing medicine kick in, my doctor asked me if I could feel her poking me.  I don't think she knew I could see the reflection of her in the overhead lamp as she stabbed at my belly in a way that reminded me of Psycho.  It was hilarious and terrifying at the same time.  I just told her I couldn't, and the surgery proceeded.
            An hour later or so later, I was closed up and holding two new babies:  Dallin and Celeste.  We were happy that our twins had arrived safe and healthy.  As had been the case the entire pregnancy, Celeste was a hair bigger, but both were healthy and strong.  During the day, the twins stayed in the room with us and then at night we sent them to the nursery (as we knew we would need all of our strength to raise all 4 kids).
            A few days later we arrived home to screams of excitement.  Both of the girls gave lots of hugs and then immediately asked to hold the babies.  So we prepped two bottles of formula, sat them on the couch, and let them hold and feed their siblings.  I think they will be good helpers.
            We enjoyed the company of Ryan's mom for the first week and a half, but then sadly had to drive her to the airport and bid farewell as she had to go home to start work.  So Ryan took the older girls and drove her to the airport.  He then continued north to my grandparents' home to get my mom (we felt the twins were too young to go up quite yet).  She had planned to stay around and help for a couple of weeks as well.  The girls were very excited that they got to see both grandmas in one day.
            The rest of the month was spent getting into our new routine and getting used to low sleep again.  Sometimes all it felt like I was doing was nursing, but we eventually fell into somewhat of a rhythm.  One thing is for sure, life just got a whole lot crazier.
            Well, that does it for this quarter.  Until next time!