Fun in Twinville

Devin gets really board sometimes when I am at work so he finds all sorts of ways to keep the kids entertained. One day he made them hats out of tin foil and another day Brigham actually was the one who found Emmys old dance costume and insisted on wearing it around the house for the rest of the night. What fun Daddy is!

I think this is painters tape.....he was lovin' it!

This is while I was lucky enough to be home! The twins were in the playroom playing so nice and quiet.....I thought, "oh yipee, I can get the kitchen straitened up; they can't get into trouble in the playroom!" Little did I know, they had found a bottle of lotion and took it in there with them and decided to paint each other with it. At least the smelled yummy the rest of the day!

Super Cute!!

I have a good friend who designs and sells handbags that are to die for!! This is my baby gift! One of her Super Cute diaper bags! Isn't it so flippin' cute! Check out her website (http://www.mygirldesigns.com/) for pre-made bags, as well as her design option where you can design the whole bag your self. They are so cute, I wish I had 4 or 5 to match my outfits or something! Thanks again Sarah!!!

Happy Birthday Crystal!

Ok, I am really behind on my posting, so I know this is late, but Happy Birthday Crystal!! Crystal is my bestest sister-in-law and even though her Birthday was on the 9th I wanted to give a little shout out a week late anyways. Me and my sisters surprised her by showing up at her work and taking her out to lunch. We had a lot of fun just yappin' and enjoying our yummy food. Here are some things that I love about Crystal:

* Her sense of style. She can put the cutest things together!!

* Her sense of humor.....she seriously cracks me up!

* I love that we watch "The Bachelor" together (ok, at our own houses, but then we get to text about it the next day!)

* I love that she is such a "gamer". Her and Jacob always have the funnest games to play!

* I love that she loves my kids. They really love her and with as many LOUD munchkins that we have running around, I am so glad she not only tolerates it, but still manages to love them! :)

* And the absolute #1 thing I love about her is that she married my brother!!

I am SO glad that Crystal is a part of our family! It is so great how well she fits it......it feels like she has always been our sister! Happy Birthday Crystal, we love you!

Silly Devin

So, ask anyone in Devins family if he is accident prone and they would probably die laughing, and then tell you a million stories about all the things that have happened to him during his 34 years of life. Even as an adult, he continues to be every ones insurance policy (as long as Devin is around, no one else will get hurt!!) In the past 3 weeks he has been to the ER 4 times for 3 different injuries.........I think he has been feeling a bit neglected with the new baby around?? That or he misses Redge beating up on him so now he just does it himself? Come back Redge, come back!! :) The first injury was 3 weeks ago when he broke his toe, followed the next week by having a huge metal tank fall on his left leg almost breaking it, followed the next week by a pan of boiling water falling on his right leg resulting in 2nd degree burns from his thigh all the way down to his toes. Which was kind of funny because he had just stopped limping on his left leg, and now is limping on his right leg. What is even more funny is that every time he would start feeling better he would laugh and say, "now I have to find something else to whine about" and afew days later, lo and behold he had something new to whine about. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy and am still laughing as I write all this!! I just thought everyone would LOVE to see pictures of his nasty legs! Poor baby!
Left leg













Right leg

Baby update

So here are some currant pictures of my big ol' baby! Isn't he adorable?? Well except for the scratch marks on his face. Those would be courtesy of my little Brinley! It's so weird b/c she is such a little mommy to Brigham, but she is SO mean to Ryker. She hits him all the time! :( Also, don't pay any attention to the "girl" swing that he is in......I have a boy one but I haven't gotten it out yet; probably because I can't leave him in it unless the twins are in bed! I pretty much can't leave him anywhere when the twins are awake.....AHHHHHHH!!! Can't put him in a pack-n-play b/c they can climb in it; can't leave him in the swing cuz they climb on him; can't leave him buckled in his car seat on the table b/c they will climb on the table! So my days pretty much consist of holding the baby and chasing the twins around...literally....thats ALL I do ALLLLL day long. It has become very exhausting. BUT, I must say that one wonderful thing is how fabulous Ryker sleeps at night! I have NEVER had a baby that sleeps this good, this early. Once we get him to sleep; which is usually between 10 & 12, he only gets up once during the night, and for the most part he just eats and goes back to sleep. We have had afew long nights, but overall he has been so great at night. (he seems to save his fussiness for during the day; but at least I'm not overly tired!) So two big advantages to having a GINORMOUS baby would definitely be the great sleeping, and the weight loss plan is GREAT! I lost 21lbs. in the first 10 days; can't beat that! Only 9 more to go, and then I have to chisel away at the left over weight from the twins! FUN!`

Happy Easter!

Better late than never I guess! Here are some pictures from Easter morning. My kids were so awesome! A few of them slept in, but the ones that got up early didn't even come in our room and bother their baskets (they are always in our room so I can guarantee myself at least afew pictures of the kids!) Mason even came into our room while we were still asleep and woke me up to ask me when they could get their baskets; I told him when we woke up. He said, "ok mom" stopped and looked in his basket, then went off to play. How funny is that!! I am a little bugged that I was too sleepy to notice that Liberty was only wearing a pull up! Especially b/c she only puts one on every once in a while; but the stripping her jammies off IS pretty normal. My silly Libs!

Meet the Hulk!!

Meet our new little man! Hyrum "Ryker" Tietjen joined our family @ 11:42 am Monday March 10th. After a long week of contractions and one trip to the hospital, we went in for our induction on Sunday night at 9:00pm. I tested positive for Strep B, so they spent the 1st 8 hours giving me antibiotics, started pitocin at 6:30 Monday morning and he was here before lunch! It actually seemed quite long for me because usually within 1 hour of the Dr. breaking my water I am delivering, but this time was different. His head was turned weird and it wasn't in the right position so dilating was taking longer than it should have. The only scare we had was about an hour before I had him they were flipping me (and when I say "they were flipping me" I am being very literal! They were having a hard time getting the pain under control and had me so drugged that I could not move at all, so Devin and the nurse had to literally pick up my lower body and turn me from side to side!) Anyways, one time they flipped me on my left side and the babies heart rate dropped to 60, so they hurried and flipped me back to the other side and it still didn't come up so the nurse was in a panic, yelling for help and for someone to get my Doctor there, trying to move me around to see if it would go back up. It was a nightmare! I could see the panic in her face and I just laid there thinking, "oh my gosh my baby is dying and they are going to have to cut me open" That is the most awful sound I have ever heard, is that little heartbeat getting slower and slower! Thank goodness after about 5 min. his heart rate slowly started coming back up and the Dr. got there and said what had probably happened is that the cord was tangled somewhere and when I turned to that side the pressure of the baby pinched on the cord and was cutting of the blood supply to the baby. Which it was, the cord was wrapped once around his neck. Talk about scary! I am just so thankful that everything turned out good! Oh wait! I think I have forgotten the most wonderful part! Ryker Tietjen is 22 inches long and 11 POUNDS!!! No that is not a typo, no I'm not kidding he weighs 11 pounds! All his little fat rolls are so adorable! His face is still swollen and bruised from the delivery, but I just want to eat his huge chubby cheeks! I had over a dozen nurses yesterday knock on the door asking if they could come in and see the 11 pound baby, cuz they had never seen a new baby that big before! It was really funny! I was at the new Banner Gateway hospital and they said he is the biggest baby that has been delivered there since they opened (about 5 months ago I think) I really think I should have won a prize like free diapers until someone broke that record! HA!HA! I am so grateful that he is here, and that we had a safe delivery. (and to answer the other questions that I have been getting; no, no C-Section and no tearing.) His head actually isn't that big....15", which for me isn't my biggest. Austins head was 16". I don't know where these huge babies come from, but it makes me feel better about being so huge before delivery!! :) Thanks to everyone who came and saw us in the hospital and a HUGE thank you to my sister Amanda & her hubby James, who stayed at my house to take care of the kids; as well as my Mom & Dad, Tiffany and Camille! I could never relax at the hospital if I didn't know that my kids were being well taken care of; and that is a huge feat! I was a little sad to come home today; ONLY because I know I wont get to hold him very much now that I have to share him with 7 kids! Actually I love that my kids love him so much; even if Mason doesn't like his name "cuz it is weird" :) Welcome home Ryker, we Love You!!

Sundays the day!

So I had a request to post my prego belly, which I am greatly opposed to b/c I am SO HUGE! But Devin just so happened to insist upon taking a picture of my belly on Sunday so whatever! Everyone stare at the hippo! :) (I am wearing Devins pants--I'm really not that HUGE all over!) I did have my FINAL Dr.'s appointment yesterday and here is the details. I am 37 1/2 weeks, 2 1/2 cm. dilated and 80% effaced. After doing an ultrasound, which says that the baby is 41 weeks and 9 to 10 lbs., the Dr. decided to schedule an induction (DUH! I have been trying to get him to listen to me and understand that I have BIG babies!!!) So Sunday at 9pm I will be checking in for round 8 of baby-palooza! I am finishing stuff around the house and SO relieved to have an end in sight! Devin set up the pack-n-play afew days ago and Liberty is on guard duty to make sure that it stays nice and neat until there is a baby to go in it. Last night, she came in our room to find that the twins had pulled out all the soft blankies and gotten things messy and was quite upset, "Oh my goodness! The baby is NOT going to be happy about this!!!" And made sure to fix it so it looked nice and neat again! LOL! Everyone is really excited. It's funny how I am already starting to be sad about missing my big belly (as uncomfortable as I am; go figure!!) and being even more sad about how quickly these beautiful babies grow up! Devin looked at the pack-n-play the other night and said, "oh, they are so much more work once they are in there and not in there (pointing to my tummy)" I realized how right he was, and how I had been so focused on wanting the baby out, that I forgot what I am headed for. But, it is all worth it and I can't wait to have a new tiny (haha) baby in our house again!!

Devins family ROCKS!

So 3 of Devins sisters showed up at my house this morning with 7 meals ready to go for me; just heat and eat! Why? Cuz they are awesome I guess! And as they are leaving they make me promise to call and let them help with kids or food or whatever, when I have the baby. (yeah, these meals are so I don't have to cook for a week, NOT for when I have the baby! Can you believe that!!)

2 weeks ago on a Saturday morning I got a phone call from his other sister Nola and she was on her way to my house with my 2 teenage nieces and another sister, to come and clean my house. The most amazing part about that is that when Nola told her 2 girls where she was going they both said, " I want to go" and came along--she didn't even ask them to come help! What teenagers do that? Oh yeah, my nieces do!! :) I am so dang spoiled!!! I love Devins family to pieces and the only way I can stand to let them do things for me like this, is that someday I will be in their shoes where I don't have a million little kiddos at home all day and I can do way cool things for other people! Thank you thank you to my wonderful sisters!!!!!

Pinewood Derby

February 20th was my boys 1st pinewood derby! (I have no idea how Austin has missed out on that for the past 2 years??) I must admit, as a mom I was worried how the boys were going to do in competition. I didn't know that Devin had a talk with them before we left about being a good looser as well as a good winner. Anyways, they were awesome!! The rest of the kids were really good too. The girls loved cheering for their brothers and every time they would win they would jump up and down and yell "way to go Austin! Good job Hunter!" It really was fun. Hunter was undefeated, taking 1st place and Austin took 2nd place; loosing only once, and that was to Hunter! I was excited for them that they won, but I was more happy that they were so great about not being show offs or acting like they were better than anyone. Austin didn't even seem to mind that he lost to his brother, which kind of surprised me! They also took home awards for Most patriotic (Hunter) and Best use of color (Austin). I was so happy for them that they have an awesome Dad that spent a lot of time helping them with their cars! Thanks DAD!! And thanks Grandma & Grandpa for coming and cheering us on!