Christmas Flashback......

With Christmas being so close around the corner, I haven't had time to do a new post. I love, love, love Christmas! But I have to admit, I haven't been in my usual Christmas Cheer kind of mood lately. I feel like I haven't really been able to stop and enjoy the Holiday. I am usually one of the first to get out my tree and all my decorations. But this year has been just the opposite. I put out all of my Christmas decorations out several weeks ago, but never did my tree. I have been so worried about my babies pulling ornaments off of it or tipping the whole thing over, that I debated whether to put it up at all this year. I know that I am not the only one with little kids, so I'm kind of curious to know how well everyones kids have done with their tree.



Anyway, today I finally got all of my Christmas cards done, and finished the gifts for our parents. (which has taken sooo much time!) My mom convinced me that I have to put up my tree, so I am going to do that tonight and tomorrow. Even though Christmas is only eleven days away now.

I thought that I would do a flashback of last Christmas, since it was the first Christmas with our new babies!

Mason's eyes are so funny in this picture. This is what he looked like in every single picture for a long time! The Deer in the headlights look! If you double click on the picture, you can get the full effect!

One Year Pictures!

I finally went and got the babies one year pictures taken! I'm only a month and a half late. I figure it's better late than never, right?! This was definitely the best picture taking experience we have ever had. The babies were so good and we were done in half an hour!
I also had one taken in their Halloween costumes. The guy at the picture place was making fun of me since Halloween was forever ago!

Girls Trip

I just got back from a fun, relaxing weekend in St. George and Vegas. Every year I go with a group of friends for a fun weekend with lots of shopping and pampering with no kids! We had so much fun this year! Thanks Sommer for letting us stay at your beautiful house!

On Friday we went to the spa and then spent the day shopping in St. George. Saturday morning we drove to Vegas and shopped at Town Square, a new shopping center at the end of the strip. We spent at least two hours in H & M! I LOVE that store! I wish that they had one somewhere in Utah!

After a fun trip this is what our cars looked like, FULL of shopping bags!

Before we left to come home, we had a quick parrafin wax treatment. I think I might need to get one of those for my house!

Thanks girls for a GREAT weekend!

Naughty or Nice???

We decided to take Mason and Carly to see Santa this year. It took them a few minutes to figure out what was going on. They may not be smiling, but at least they are not in tears! I think that it turned out pretty good. About ten seconds after they took this picture Mason burst out into tears!

Family of FIVE!

No, I am not pregnant! We got a kitty. And if you know me at all, I am NOT a cat person! I don't have anything against them, I just never wanted to own one! Well after alot of begging and begging, and some more begging from Scott; I finally caved in. Lucky for us it is already potty trained, declawed and fixed. My kids absolutely love it too! Which is good and bad. Mason is pulling wrestling moves on it and has him pinned down most the time and Carly always pulls his tail. But the cat just keeps coming back for more. I am trying to teach them how to be soft with the kitty, but it is not working so well.

As of right now, the kitty is still un-named. We just can't come up with anything that we like very much. I know, we better hurry and decided before this cat has an identity disorder! So if you have any great cat names, let me know!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I absolutely love this time of year! We had such a great Thanksgiving! Scott's parents came over to our house for breakfast on Thursday morning. It was nice to have them over. I am so lucky to have such great in-laws! And Mason and Carly love them so much! They were showing off for them the whole time! Mason has recently learned how to make silly faces, and Carly just laughs hysterically at him! They are so cute together!

Scott was supposed to work in the afternoon, but someone was nice enough to offer to take his shift! I was so excited! We had Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house. It was delicious
of course! I ate way too much food and probably sampled three kinds of pie! In case I didn't eat enough on Thursday, we are having Thanksgiving dinner again at the Francis' on Sunday! Here are some pictures from the day.

There are so many things that I am grateful for this year! I am so grateful for my sweet babies. They are so fun and make me laugh every single day! I am grateful for my amazing husband! He is so good to me and he's the greatest father that I know! I am grateful for all of our family and how close we are with all of them. It's especially nice to have family around during the holidays. And I am so grateful for my heavenly father and the peace he brings to my life. I don't know where I would be without the gospel in my life! I could go on and on, but I'm sure it will get boring. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I love you all!

The Russo Family

Today we had the opprutunity to go to the sealing of our friends Steve and Alesha Russo and their little boy Trip. It was such a special day and such a wonderful sealing! After Steve and Alesha had been sealed to each other, they brought in their handsome little boy all dressed in white. I'm pretty sure that there wasn't a dry eye in the room! I am truly so greatful for the temple and that I am sealed to my amazing husband and sweet babies!

What a great day! Thanks Steve and Alesha for letting us be apart of it! We are so excited for you guys!

Did you say COWS on the runway???

Scott and I got to spend last weekend in Vegas. We had so much fun! Scotts parents were nice enough to watch the babies for us! We went and see Howie Mandel at the MGM and stayed one night at the beautiful Venetian. Our room was amazing! We decided that everytime we go, we need to stay there now! (at least we wish we could) We flew home on Monday afternoon. I was a little nervous about the flight, since I don't always do good in little planes. Lucky for me, I had a great pilot (for those of you who don't know, I'm talking about my husband!) and it was a smooth flight the whole way home!

Last time Scott and I flew into Spanish Fork we had an interesting situation. As we were coming in to land another pilot came on the radio and told us to be advised of COWS on the runway! I thought that I had just heard him wrong or that he was playing a joke on us. He then came on a second time to tell us again that there were cows on the runway! Scott decided that he would probably just have to buzz the runway and hope that they would move. As we came in closer, sure enough there were three or four cows at the very end of the runway! We were laughing so hard!! Only in Spanish Fork would you find cattle wondering there way onto the runway!

Here is a picture of us coming into Utah Valley and then a picture of Scott flying.

Fall Pictures

These are pictures from a couple weeks ago. I really wanted to get some fall pictures of the babies, so we loaded them up and went for a Sunday drive up Provo Canyon. Scott and I both had our cameras, but I didn't think to check the batteries. I got one picture of each of the babies when my camera died! I went and got Scotts and his was dead too! What a pain! So these are the only pictures I got. Carly is so funny, she kept trying to eat the leaves! Not like it is anything out of the ordinary for them to put EVERYTHING straight into their mouths!

Happy Halloween!

I love, love, love Halloween!! It is definitely one of my favorite holidays, and it is so much more fun now that I have kids! This year, Mason & Carly were a Skunk and a flower. Every year since I was little, my mom has made these amazing costumes! She made the babies pea pod costumes last year, and I decided that it was time for me to learn. So thanks to much help from my mom, I actually made their costumes!

I think I took close to thirty pictures, and some how I did not end up with one good one! The babies did NOT want to hold still. They kept crawling away or eating the leaves off the ground.

Carly, my sister Kacie and Mason

Mason & Carly at the pumpkin patch by our house.

Look who's ONE!!

I can't believe that Mason & Carly are already one! We had so much fun at their birthday parties! On Sunday night we had a birthday party with the Francis family. I always wanted to make their first birthday cakes, so here they are. I am definately NOT a baker! I spent the entire day making them! I guess they turned out all right for my first time. At the end of the night I had a hard time throwing them away after all of that work!

This was at their second birthday party at my parents house. Mason really got into the cake! Carly started out being her pretty self, and then got into it a little bit more. It was a lot of fun! Between the two parties, they got more than enough new toys!

Here is our family. The babies don't look too happy in this picture. They were still getting over being sick for the last week.

Below I added a slide show with some more birthday pics. I hope you enjoy! We have been so blessed this last year! I couldn't ask for better babies. Anyone who knows Mason and Carly know that they are the happiest babies! They have complete opposite personalities, and it is so fun to watch them grow up!

Birthday Pictures

What a year!!

Wow! I can't believe my little babies are already one! I thought that I would do a recap of the last year or so. Starting with when we found out we were having TWINS! Sorry, this is sooo long! Don't feel obligated to read it!

I always said that I wanted twins, but never thought that it was actually going to happen! I was ten weeks along when the doctor told us we were having twins! I honestly didn't believe him, he just said it so casually. I looked at Scott and he just had a huge smile on his face. (Which was very comforting) I was in shock and I don't think that I said a word for at least five or ten minutes. We were so excited, but I was very scared to carry two babies!

However, I was very blessed and had a great pregnancy! Don't get me wrong, I was sooooo uncomfortable and so big! But I was able to work full time up until the week before I delivered. I had decided in my mind, that there was no way that I could go to 40 weeks! Scott was so great through the whole pregnancy, but very impatient for the babies to come! Every day that went by, he just got more and more anxious and frustrated! I was at my 35 week check up and the doctor decided to check me and see if I was progressing yet. Well, I was 100% effaced and dilated to a 4. He sent me over to the hospital and admitted me. I was suddenly so nervous and Scott was so excited! He called his work and our families and told them that I was in the hospital and going to have the babies. Unfortunately, I wasn't in active labor and the doctor could not induce me at 35 weeks. He kept me over night, and I was still the same the next morning. Since the babies were still small, they gave me a steroid shot to help develop their lungs. And then sent me home on bed rest and told me that I should be going any day! Well I made it to my next doctors appointment a week later. I was now now dilated to a five and still not in active labor. He wanted me to go to the hospital for a non-stress test the next morning. My mom came with me and while I was there he checked me again and said that Baby A's head was too low for him to send me home. We called Scott at work and he came right over. Apparently it was a busy day to have a baby, because labor and delivery was totally full! We waited for 2 hours to get a room. Luckily I was feeling great and had no pain. At six o'clock the doctor finally came and broke my water. He said that I was doing so good, I might not even need an epidural! I just laughed, and told him not a chance! I waited for a couple good contractions before getting my epidural, and then it was smooth sailing!

At 12:01 a.m. Mason was born, Carly followed right after her big brother two minutes later. They had all of the NICU nurses standing by ready to go in case there were any problems. As soon as they came out they quickly took them into the other room to work on them. I was so scared that they had come to soon and would have problems. After only a few minutes, Scott brought them in one at a time to let me see them and touch their hands. They were completely healthy and breathing on their own! We were so relieved! As the nurses wheeled the babies down to the nursery, they told our moms that they hardly ever get to take BOTH babies down to the well-baby nursery. It wasn't until three hours later that I finally got to hold them. It seemed like forever! I was so amazed at how beautiful they were! The babies did well over the next little bit. The doctors were questioning whether I would be able to take them home right away, since they were still very little and having a hard time eating enough food. But a couple of days later all three of us got to leave the hospital. I am so so blessed to have had two healthy babies that got to come right home with me!

Mason Scott Francis 4lbs 13 oz, Carly Lynn Francis 4lbs 5 oz

Halloween: Two peas in a pod! 2 weeks old















Christmas: 2 months old















Easter: 6 months old















4th of July! 8 1/2 months old

All by himself!

So my friend Heidi and her kids were at my house the other night and we were taking pictures of the three babies before we put them to bed. Well Mason crawled over to me, stood up and let go. He stood there for a good thirty seconds. But of course, I was soooo excited that I put down my camera and started cheering and clapping!! Good thing Heidi was there to pick up my camera and take a picture for me! You can even see me clapping in the corner. What a perfect picture!! He was so excited!



















Carly, Mason and Belle. (Belle is almost two months younger than my kids!)

Mason got stuck in the toy basket! I seriously could not stop laughing!!

How mean am I?? Mason was upset by this time, but he was so cute, I just kept taking pictures!



















This is probably one of the few times you will see Carly without a bow on, and that is because she is going to bed! I have a serious obsession! My family teases me that they don't recognize Carly without a bow. What can I say, she has very little hair and I don't like it when people mistake my kids for twin boys!! So until I can do pig tails, it is bows and earrings!