Jan 03
Everyone,
I don’t know what got in my head today but I was ready for the boys to move from their infant car seats to their big kid car seats. Probably because the car seats were in big boxes in our our entry way and I am trying to keep our house semi-box free. Or maybe it’s because I have hard time carrying them in their infant seats. 17 pounds plus the three or four pounds of car seat in each hand is very hard. I’ve been finding myself more often than not unbuckling them and putting them in the sling or the backpack or both to get around.
Juice was nice enough to clean the Fern Tree Van today (after promising to do it for 3 weeks, ever since he spilled cereal all over the back). He then took out the baby seats, and installed the big seats. They are the exact same kind as Butterfly’s, but they are grey instead of brown. If anyone is interested in which brand we got they can click here (and then click on the Sunshine Radian 80 demo).
The reason why we picked this brand is because they are one of the tallest car seats in the business, and also the slimmest. If we ever need to fit three across the backseat of a car, we can! (Hey look, our van seats 7. We could have another set of twins and not have to buy a new car!) Right now, we have the boys in the captain chairs and Butterfly in the back. She likes to be in the back because she has her own cup holder, light, and window button. When the boys become forward facing in a few short months, we will move one back to the back seat and have one of the captain chairs open. Of course, with this set up, no one can ride in our car unless they are extremely agile because the only open seats are in the very back seat.
It seems weird to put them in these seats. They seem so small still. And yet, they were ready to get out of the infant seats. I hope these will be the last big car seats we have to buy. Butterfly will probably be in a booster seat when the next baby is born (if there is a next baby) so he or she can have hers when they are ready. Of course, we could have another set of twins (hahaha) and then we’ll have to buy at least one more.
I can’t believe how big they are getting!
Safire
Safirenew van, P and P firsts
Jun 07
Everyone,
It’s been a whirlwind week for us. My parents have been visiting all week and left to go home this afternoon. This has also been a week-of-serious-car-buying. Yes, you read right. We are buying a car. Bought. Van. We bought a van on Tuesday. Okay so it wasn’t a week of car buying. Only two days of it. It felt like a week though. My dad and I furiously rushed around the local car places in hour and a half increments throughout the days. That was as long as the boys could go between feedings. I felt bad for my mom and Flower the last day because both boys were inconsolable towards the end. They did very good and allowed us to find a great car. Van. I mean van.
Butterfly wants to name the van Sally or Lightning McQueen. “Or we could call it Chick because it’s green! And Chick is green!” Our van is green. I’m leaning towards calling the van Fern but Butterfly won’t let me. Anyway, for all you car people, the van is a 2004 Kia Sedona with 14,000 miles on it. The miles were right. The size was a bit small but we can fit all the kids and us in it plus one. It does have a dvd player in it. The price was excellent. We were able to buy it out right. I love not having a car payment!
I also love having doors that slide so I don’t have to worry about hitting other cars with them. I love being able to unlock the doors from a key chain. (A funny story about that. Our friend Julien came to visit about a month ago and said he needed to check if he locked the doors of his rental car. He walked outside, took about 5 steps, and walked back inside. Juice asked him if he could see from there if it was locked or if he had a cool key chain thing. Julien said, “Juice, everyone but you has a cool key chain thing.” It was so true. And now we have one! Sweet!) I love that I can fit my strollers in the back (although I do have to take the wheels off). And I love that now we can actually go somewhere with everyone, including Flower. Yay for space!
So, all day Monday and Tuesday I spent driving cars. Wednesday we drove to the mall and got the kids’ pictures taken. (Super cute, email me for the password if you want to see.) And then we spent 3 hours trying to get home. There was a huge storm (go here for a video of it). It downed trees all over the area. And of course, we were trying to get home through the back roads. Which had more downed trees and downed power lines. We had to stop twice to feed the babies. (Once in front of our bishop’s house where a tree had smashed a car and their roof! No one got hurt thank goodness.) I had been in touch with Juice and we still had power but a lot of people didn’t in the area. It was nice to finally get home.
On Friday, our good friends who moved away to St. Louis, came to visit. We had a great time with them! And it just confirmed to me that boys will never grow up because Juice and Juilen spent the morning shooting each other with foam guns and missiles. Never mind that the kids wanted to play too! I really miss them and it was fun to have a morning to connect again.
I feel like we have been moving all day, every day. Add on to that taking care of the twins and Butterfly (could not have been done without Flower!), I am exhausted. But this is just the beginning of summer for me. And I love it!
Safire
PS- All local gals, we are invited to swim at the bishop’s kiddie pool on Tuesday at 10am! Hope to see you there.
Safirefamily visiting, friends, new van, storms
