Who needs a maid...

...When you have Kyla!!

Here is what mini me does,

-She changes diapers and gets mad when you don't let her
-She carries the Jayci and Presley's drinks up to bed for me while I carry 50 lbs of babies on my hips
-She closes their door after tucking them in
-She gives them their food for every meal
-She wipes them off AND takes them out of their high chairs!
-I caught her yesterday doing my dishes...yep. (A full sink)
-Sweeps the floor
-cleans the entire livingroom perfectly for me while i'm cleaning the kitchen
-she wipes off the table
-Helps me fold laundry and organize it into piles
-takes things away from Jayci and Presley when she knows they aren't allowed stuff
-tells me when they have something in their mouth that isn't food, or just pins them down and gets it out herself. Which they love...
-closes the doors to the bathrooms and rooms they aren't allowed in
-takes off their sleepers in the morning
-turns the tv up and down when I ask her (she figured this out on her own)
- In the mornings when Dustin is home and we both just want to lay in bed she'll go in their room and play with them in their cribs until we want to get up. ha (don't judge remember.)
-brings me the phone if i'm downstairs working
-fills their sippy cups with water or juice when they want more
-She gives them hugs if they get hurt and they hug her back and stop crying

So I pretty much get to lay on the couch all day and let her do all my work for me. No i'm kidding... only half the day...
This is not child labour...right?

Now remember that if you don't let her do these things, she gets quite mad. Or if she is busy and you do something she normally does well be prepared to suffer the consequences! I've said this before but I used to think that if I ever would have twins (because who doesn't think about the "what if" we had twins?) anyways I thought I would want them first so I wouldn't know any different from one baby. But no way, I take that back big time. What would I do without her. I love this girl!
This is her doing the dishes last night, that sink if full of dishes she already did! She washed them all with cold water. I left them to dry overnight and put them away this morning with all the crusty food still on them that she missed, because I didn't want to hurt her feelings, we even ate on them for breakfast....haha totally kidding! gross. I had to redo them this morning very discretely.
Anyways, I think everyone needs a Kyla, but not mine because I gave birth to her and she belongs to me kind of.
Oh and Merry Christmas to everyone! We leave on Friday and we'll be back in a few weeks! Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday! Love ya :)

The house guest

There once was a cute little mom with a cute little girl, and one Sunday the mom decided to be a good mom that day (like every other day of course) and thought they should make some cookies together.
And like the good mom she is, she included her little twins...

And then all of the sudden a surprise guest came jingling at the door! The dad and two of the little girls ran to see who it was.
Well the dad (who just got home from work and was gross and smelt like the plant) couldn't wait and got quite excited, so he jumped right in. He even shafted out his poor little wife who was trying to fit into the picture.
Then after quite some time of asking Santa for gifts, (his list was similar to his non-materialistic wife's) he decided it would be nice to share with the little children. So over the little Presley came.
The oldest little girl was excited, but not enough to sit on his lap so she did well beside him.

Finally one of the little twins, Jayci, got the courage to come over after giving Santa a stare down from the kitchen. So she sat on the daddy's lap, while the little Presley showed him a book.
They didn't show much emotion at first but it made for a cute picture with 3 cute little girls.
But then the little twins couldn't hold in their hidden excitement anymore... (I don't think their parents ever told them about Santa.)
Little Jayci was the most excited.

Little Presley decided it was time to check out if he was the real thing.

And of course they had to have the whole family in there to remember this experience.

And so he handed out candy canes and went out the door, to his sleigh, to head home to the north pole!

And that was the end of the very special guest who came to The Francis house that Sunday night.

(Please don't be jealous of my story telling, it comes naturally.)

Random is what i'm good at

So today is Saturday and Dustin is working. (As always) He is working every day and evening until we leave. Which is Friday!!! He is doing 3 side jobs as well as 12 hour shifts at the plant. That's right I make my man work hard. He has to prove his love for us by making us money to buy stuff. Right? Plus i'm also totally fine with it seeing as we are getting 3 weeks holidays!! I can't tell you how excited I am. I NEED this. Really bad. I need to see family and just have fun, and laugh till we cry, and play games, and stay up late just talking and finally letting Gavin and the girls see each other! Oh and I guess Dustin will need a break too...

So It's freezing here. Like -50C freezing! Ya I know this is what everyone is talking about, but this is what is happening so deal with it. Last night Dustin and I went shopping and it was the only night we could do it before we leave so we had no choice. When we got home at 11pm, I checked the weather and it was -37C but feels like -48C. And there was no wind! (One plus of not living in Southern Alberta is that hideous wind!) Anyways we were cold. Although staying in the house all day isn't much different than any other day for me, i'm a hermit. We did get a lot accomplished though and Kyla definitely got spoiled. I'm not going to lie, I am really loving being able to spoil the girls. We have had a lot of Christmas's where we couldn't afford much, last year we hardly got them anything, so it just feels good we can buy them what we want for once. Besides they do need a lot of things, and their gifts are all useful things, like learning stuff or clothes etc. But I am having the hardest time finding stuff for Jayci and Presley up here. We got so much for Kyla at their age that now they just use all that. Such as the ride on car, leap frog play center, a chair with a little book center attached that plays music, elmo chair....not much. They do need a lot but I think it'll be a lot of smaller things, like books, and little activity toys to keep them occupied. Also it's hard because do I buy them one gift for both, or two of the same things so they don't fight, or two of the same but different color, or two different things all together?? I'm leaning towards getting them two different things and then that equals more toys in the end, and if they fight, well then it gets taken away all together! But I still have the problem of actually finding them stuff. We have ONE thing so far as a joined gift for them. (I think the bigger ones will be more joined since i'm not loaded!) But Kyla is DONE, yes done. Actually I have one more thing on her Santa list to get her but i'll buy that at Toys r us in Lethbridge. We pulled out all the gifts we have and separated them into piles, well Kyla's was this mound of stuff and Jayci and Presley's had this one gift just sitting there all by itself...poor kids, they are so loved. It is so much easier buying for her age! It's awesome, I could buy her so much. Dora this, princess that, Hannah Montana... I swore i'd never have cartoonish stuff for my kids, it would all be modern and pink and brown and not babyish. ha ya right. She gets so excited about it, how can you not! Althought I don't buy clothes/shoes/accessories with that stuff on it. Don't judge me.
We have to do a full day of shopping in Lethbridge when we go because we have picked through everything up here. I also want to get Dustin a few more things. Being grown up and having kids, Christmas is so much more fun for them! Don't get me wrong, I love gifts, like I secretly say it's all about the kids but then I secretly want to be spoiled just as much. It's like one big party for me for being such an awesome mom! I do love the excitement of buying for the kids. It's awesome. This seems like a really contradicting post but it makes sense to me, so just go with it.

I am SO happy that I get crunched cereal and crackers all over my floors everyday. There is nothing better than walking all over it, it's like a massage kind of. They dump them out and then step on them like they aren't even there. Also the cereal... I had to take down the gate to the kitchen because as much as I love two screaming girls hanging on it desperately trying to get through, I was getting a lot of headaches which turn into migraines, which I also think are the perfect finish to any day. I have all of 3 top cupboards and one bottom one in my kitchen. (not including the pots/pan/appliances one) Ya my kitchen is huge. So i'm thinking of moving them all up to on top of the fridge, it won't look pretty but at least i'll be able to keep my sanity!
I also love the kids waking up at 6am every morning, and sometimes 5:30! I will put them back to bed at that time but within half hour the rest are up. I have spent a lot of mornings laying on the couch pretty much passed out while the kids play and roam free because I am wiped! I do not make a very pleasant sleep deprived mom, or wife for that matter...poor Dustin.

I am excited to be done these last 14 orders that I have downstairs. I love making them but I took on way too much before Christmas, and now i'm cramming. Plus I have to get ready to leave in 6 days.
So I definitely think this was a very uplifting, positive post, right? That's right.
I'll leave this random post with some random pictures.

I wanted to get a picture with the girls and their advent calendars so here is Kyla and Presley

Jayci wasn't quite feeling it...
Jayci and Kyla have been cuddling a lot lately. It's too cute.
Well I might have something interesting happen in the next week to blog about, and then i'm gone!

December is here!

Which means it's almost Christmas! Holy.
This weekend was our ward Primary Christmas party and it was a lot of fun. It was crazy and there were a lot of people and tons going on but the kids loved it. Santa came and the girls all hated him. Kyla liked him but wouldn't go very close to him. So our Santa picture turned into a family Santa picture! At least no one is crying in it! The Santa was like, "don't force them" I thought, heck yes I will, I want a picture and I don't care if they are screaming in it. Yes I am a good mom.
They also had a gingerbread house competition and we did ours the day of so I wanted to keep it simple and fun. Kyla and I made it together, with Dustin watching and keeping Jayci and Presley happy. So since Dustin had no say in it, it turned out...well, not very masculine. We won for best roof and most elaborate!

in all it's glory! See told you it's masculine.

this was quite entertaining.

not too bad eh?

learning how to wrap a present

I raise perfect children

I was tidying up in the basement and the girls were all upstairs playing. Kyla comes down stairs...

Mom I have to tell you something (smiling)
What's up
I changed Jayci's bum
what?!
I changed Jayci's bum! (Super proud of herself)
Right now you did??
ya!
Was it poopy?
Ya
what?
I mean no, just pee
Where did you do it?
In her room

Well you can imagine the images I had going through my head. So I ran upstairs and into their room and looked around and just saw two little girls playing. Jayci's pj's were off and her onesie was open and sure enough there was a wet diaper on the floor. And there was Jayci with a clean diaper on! Pretty darn perfect too! What the? I was shocked. So I said ok, now change Presley's. I wanted to see how she did it. So she did, Presley sat there perfectly still and she took off the wet diaper, wiped her and put a new one on.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing....

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,
For Christmas I want a Barbie, Ballerina stuff, Tinkerbell movie and doodlebops movie. I have two baby sisters and a mom and dad, and I can keep them safe. This year I will be at Grandma Petersen's for Christmas,

Thank You Santa
Merry Christmas
love, Kyla 3 years old.

Dear Santa,

For Christmas I don't want much since I have everything I could ever ask for, and I don't care about materialistic things. So sorry this is all I can come up with...

Kitchen Aid

Canon Rebel XTI camera

Photoshop

Organizing stuff for my business

New leather couches

A new tv, 50" flat screen would be fine

A new bigger kitchen table

A Bedroom set

New SUV

Maybe a house?

Pigtails for my twin girls

Rachael Ray cookware set

A vacation (if it's not too much, a shopping spree included)

and a nail file (I lost mine)

Merry Christmas Santa,

love Mindy 24 years old

18 months!

This was 18 months ago.


Look how little, I forget how small they actually were. It's still a little surreal that I went through a pregnancy and delivery with two babies. It's actually kind of sad because it was a one time experience and it flew by. I wish I would of blogged or wrote more in my journal about it. Anyways I could go on about that forever.

So here is what these two are up to now.
-They still won't talk.... Nothing. I have tried and tried to have them mimic what I say, for example i'll say "ball" and they just stare at me with this "I really don't care" face and walk away. But they copy everything else, I mean everything! So who knows, maybe it's a twin thing.

-They aren't fighting as much lately which i'm hoping will stay like this. They actually run around laughing and playing. They will copy each other and laugh their heads off. They run then jump around and fall on their bums then they say "uh oh!" (the only thing they DO say) and they think it's hilarious.

-They love to climb onto the table, dance and jump around. So I now have to gate them out of the kitchen. They also get into the cereal cupboard which I can't lock because it's a door and I can't screw in a lock since we're renting. So that's another reason why we gate them out. Oh and they also know how to open the fridge. Lets just say the kitchen is off limits to these little scheming twins! Here is proof of why we do not let them in the kitchen anymore...



They just helped themselves to some cereal and thought they'd enjoy some cartoons


-They are finally getting more teeth, they both just broke through their 7th and 8th tooth.

-When you talk to them and they don't want to listen, they stop and turn their heads away... as if I can't still see them! Then they try to look at you from the corner of their eye and smile, it's really cute actually.

-So since we barricaded the kitchen off, they now go upstairs into theirs and Kyla's room and make the mess, but I fixed that so there isn't much to play with up there. I need to put some toys up there for them. They love to go down the stairs on their bums, they drop from one stair to the other. It can't feel good. And of course they think it's funny.

So that's about how their life goes day to day. They love to play with Kyla and each other and I can't wait until they actually talk and converse with each other. They are so happy and so much fun. This is my favorite age! I totally remember it with Kyla and I LOVED it! They are just so happy! And learning everything, and they get smart and totally know what you say and it's great! They love to give hugs and kisses and it's so awesome! Kyla wasn't a super cuddly baby, but they so are, it's the best!

Happy Prelsey

and Happy Jayci!

I love them

and this picture.

So there you have it, 18 months old! CRAZY! I am blessed with the best girls and as crazy as my life can get with them, I wouldn't change it for the world!

Push My Buttons!

So I finally got with the times and added a button for The Burnt Daisy. I know i'm so smart. So make sure you go over there and add it to your blog and spread the word about my awesomeness.

How to: Copy the html code under the button and go under your blog layout, add a gadget, choose html/javascript, paste the code and viola! Now you are awesome and smart like me.

And the winner is.....

....OVER HERE!....

I also want you guys to go enter my sisters site, The Pink Knot. She is having a GREAT giveaway! Seriously it's a good one! So spread the word because it ends on Nov 28th.

oh the sickness

Well this week to be honest has been pretty crappy. Tuesday morning Jayci woke up with a pretty high fever and I wasn't feeling the best. By noon Kyla had a fever and I felt awful and by late afternoon we were all super sick, except Presley. She was still happy as could be playing all by herself. I had Jayci and Kyla pretty much dead on the couch with me while Presley roamed free. So Dustin got home that night and stayed home from mutual to take care of his sick family and give poor neglected Presley some attention. That evening I was feeling terrible and couldn't move off the couch so Dustin had to call into work the next day to stay home and help me with the kids. The next day the girls were pretty sick and I wasn't too bad. That evening Presley started sounding like everyone else so I knew she was catching it. Well that night I was feeling ok so Dustin was going to go back to work the next day. Every time one of the kids woke up in the nights Dustin went and got them and took care of them and of course I couldn't sleep through it so I tried to help him, he pretty much brought them into bed with us for a few minutes gave them some more meds and put them back to bed. If one baby woke up, the other one would wake up so he would bring them both into the bed and they both just want to be held, so I would have both of them laying literally on top of me while in the meantime Dustin would get new milk in their sippy cups and the medication for them. He'd come in and all 3 of us in the bed were passed out, I wish I got a picture of it. Quite the site having two little babies sprawled on you passed out. Well that night Kyla woke up and he asked if I could go this time so I said yes, since he went about a hundred times in the last few nights and I was feeling ok. Well in the middle of tucking her back in I got super sick and ran to the bathroom. Dustin came in to help me, of course I had nothing on my stomach which hurts even more than if you do. So I stood up after and I was ghost white, like I looked like I was dead. I saw myself in the mirror and it was weird to see myself that pale. Anyways so I went back to bed and Dustin knew he was going to have to stay home again because I was so sick. That morning I heard them all up downstairs and the girls were all crying so it was hard to sleep through and I felt miserable so I once again ran to the bathroom and did my thing and Dustin came upstairs to help and I still had nothing on my stomach to actually throw up. (Sorry for the details but hey it's a "sick" post, what do you expect) Anyways I once again got ghost white and pretty much passed out, but I could still hear Dustin saying my name and trying to wake me up. I was just too weak and exhausted to respond. I did get up after a few seconds and we called the health link. Up here to get into our family doctor it takes about a week no matter what and I hate the ER and didn't want to haul all the kids there. Well the nurse on the health link said we should all be seen with the symptoms we had. So in we went.
We actually got in really fast. I tried my hardest to be strong and help the kids and Dustin but I was so weak that they put me on IV for dehydration and then gave us all tamiflu and sent us home. So they never confirmed it was H1N1 because they have to do a swab and then they have to send it to Edmonton and it can take up to a week since they are so busy there. You have to be on tamiflu for 5 days anyways so they gave it to us anyways. So now we are all on it, except Dustin since he has been feeling fine and I swear it helped instantly. Today we are a thousand times better. The girls are even up and playing which they haven't done all week. They have just been laying on the couch or cuddling with me. I'm still weak and we all still sound gross and coughing lots but at least we can walk and move and no more fevers. They were constant and it was really hard to keep them down.
I never realized how much work it was to take care of these girls until I had no choice to sit here and watch Dustin do everything. Of course they aren't sick when I have to do it so he had twice as much work as I usually do. He is truly amazing and I never have been so grateful for him. He never complained once, and tried to keep up with the housework and meds and everything. I love him.

This was on Sunday, we weren't sick but it's a cute cuddling picture so it kinda goes...


This is Jayci and Kyla on the first day, they were so sick. They would just sit and cuddle with each other. So sad.
We did a lot of this
Jayci out cold, they would fall asleep anywhere. They were so tired but couldn't sleep in their beds because they would twitch out from their fevers and scare themselves and wake up crying. So they slept on the couch a lot.

And Presley, they seriously would lay like this forever. This is when you know they are sick.
So that's about our week, longer post than I thought but oh well. I'm just glad we are getting better and I never realized how brutal this flu can be. Oh and question, do you still have to get the immunization if you have had H1N1?

Don't forget to enter my giveaway HERE, tomorrow is the last day! I wouldn't want you to miss out!