Addison's first laugh!

Addison screamed and cried all morning long and when Josh came home for lunch and started talking to her, he got her first laughs. I don't think she likes her dad at all!

We made it!!!!

Last week was our first crazy week, alone. Jordan and Kylee went to girl's camp. While I was excited for Kylee to go for the first time. I was missing being able to go. This was the first time in 3 years that I haven't been. Not only that, but my mom also went to girls camp the same week. So she couldn't come up here. I told CarrieAnn(the camp director and across the street friend) that she took my girls and Cass's little friend (Porter, her son) away for the week and I couldn't call her for help. Her and Beth did an awesome job with camp even though it rained, all the girls had a great time! Thanks Beth and CarrieAnn for giving my girls that great experiance.

Really the babies were good. Cass helped out a lot! I felt bad for Jordan and Kylee and all the girls, because it rained the whole time. The rain kept Cass in the house too.

My washing machine broke. It was a hose, but it leaked all over the floor in the bathroom. Josh did get it fixed, but it took awhile to find the problem and get the part and find the time to fix it. He has no time, when he comes home he takes babies. I am so grateful to him.
On Wednesday, I spent the afternoon at Jodi's doing baby laundry. Both babies have had diarrhea that leaked out all the time and we were out of Addie jammies. It has been cold so we needed Jammies. Then that night Justin and Jodi fed us Pork taco's. Yummy!!! They held babies while we ate! Thanks Justin and Jodi!
Our fence was still not done! Finally on Friday the guy showed up and finished the fence. We still have no gates though. Hoping that they will not take another 2 weeks.
After all that rain our roof started leaking AGAIN! It has been a few years since it leaked and warped our floor and damaged the walls. I did get my hardwood floors out of it, but it wasn't suppose to leak again. I poked a hole in the ceiling to hopefully let it leak out there and not run down the walls and under the floor. We have been catching the water with a gallon pitcher. Some day Josh is going to get up on the roof and replace the shingles in that whole area, since it is leaking a different place this time, but it has to stop raining.
By the end of the week I hated water. Whether it was leaking from the clouds or the ceiling or washer machine.
We survived! Next time, in 2 weeks, I will not have Cassie to put in bink's, talk to, shake rattles, or stand by the twins. Every time I think we can't do this with the babies, we do it and it is easier than I think. We have been blessed to live in this awesome neighborhood with the best of friends, who help out so much.
We finally had some sun today and Cass and I went for a bike ride. I miss riding my bike. We rode our bikes everywhere we went last summer. This year that won't happen. It felt good to be out riding even if it was just a little ride around the church and our neighborhood. Next summer when the babies can sit up and Cass can ride better, we will ride everywhere again.

Sorry JcPenney, Josh did better, without the stress!

This is the last picture we took and we laughed forever while watching them, at Addie

All 5 of my beautiful children. It's ok to call AJ beautiful, right?

My adorable strong boy

Josh says they look like the old fashion married couple

He really is a smiley boy, but when that camera comes out the smiles disappear.

After the baby blessing the rain prevented us from taking many pictures. I really wanted to take a bunch of pictures. I kept thinking I needed to take them to JcPenney and get pics done in their blessing outfits. The thought alone caused stress. Packing up two babies and getting them ready, getting them to take pictures, and then standing there after trying to pick the ones we wanted sounded crazy. Things are crazy enough around here. So the night after the blessing we made all the kids get dressed up and Josh took pictures of them. They turned out great. I am not going to JcPenney for pics. Josh is still photoshopping out toys and things. These are a few of them. I posted all of them on my Facebook, if you want to see all of them.

Twins Blessing day

On Sunday the twins turned 2 months old and they were blessed. They were so good for their big day! Neither one of them cried. Which was amazing to me since church started at 1:00 and AJ was suppose to eat at 1:00 and Addie at 1:30.
We planned on going to Willow Park after Sacrament meeting, but we woke up to rain and 50 degree temperatures. It is June! Right? Thank Goodness our good friends called and asked if we wanted to go to the rec center for the luncheon. I was so thankful! I was having nightmares of a luncheon at my house with the homemade root beer and my new carpet. It was sunny when we left for church and then when it was over it was a huge downpour. We were soaked just by walking to the car and Josh brought it as close to the doors as possible. We were so grateful for the rec center and the kids had a great time playing in the gym. Josh's mom and Rachael (my sister in law) made a whole bunch of yummy homemade rolls with chicken and ham salad. I was so grateful to them for doing that. It was stressful enough without having to worry about food. So many people from Josh's Family came. They filled 3 middle rows in the chapel. He has the greatest family. I was quite disappointed in my family. My mom, dad, grandpa and youngest brother Trevor came. It meant a lot to me that they came.

About a week after Baby Carter passed away I started thinking about adding his name to AJ's. Carter was suppose to be AJ's little buddy. We have 2 nephew's Noah and Hayden who are just the best of friends. They have so much fun together and that is what I pictured AJ and Carter being. Last week I dreamed that we changed AJ's name. I asked Josh what he thought. He wasn't quite sure and said he would think about it. A few days before the blessing he said he thought we should do it. We talked to Sarah (Carter's mom) to make sure she was ok with it. So on Sunday we officially changed AJ's name to Andrew Joshua Carter Hanks. That is a name he will have to live up to and honor. He is now named after his Grandpa, Dad, and precious little cousin. Addie is named after my Grandma, Mary Ellen Beal. Josh kept calling Addie, Addison Mary Ellen Beal Hanks. He really had to think when he said her name in the blessing. He did good and named her, Addison Mary Ellen Hanks.

Who is this guy mom?

Trevor and his look-a-like AJ

My family Kylee, Grandpa Jake (my Grandpa), Grandpa Andy (my Dad), Addison Mary Ellen, Cassady, Andrew Joshua Carter, Grandma Debby (my mom), Trevor (my youngest brother), Me, and Jordan

Marianne, Josh's Aunt who made Addison's amazing dressLunchSarah with AJ and Mary with Addison

8 weeks old and all Smiles

8 Weeks old

Babies are 8 weeks old today! They are smiling when you talk to them. We are having fun making them smile! AJ is really hard to get to smile for the camera. Aren't they just adorable?

Club Athlete of the Week

Cassady was the Herald Journal's (local newspaper) Club Athlete of the Week. Her article has a cute pic of her and reads.
Cassady Hanks, daughter of Josh and Stephanie Hanks, is 5 years old and is affiliated with Air-bound Gymnastics. Cassady was chosen as Club Athlete of the week because she is such a hard worker and is nice to all the girls in her class. She worked really hard and did really good on the high beam this week.
She was so excited to go into the newspaper office and get her picture taken. It was fun for her to see herself on the newspaper.
Way to go Cassady!

No Training wheels

We thought it would take Cassady forever to learn to ride her bike without training wheels. She wouldn't practice. She was too scared. The one time I went out with her, I was running beside her and she slammed on the brakes and turned right into me. She went down and I went over the top of her. I hadn't planned on getting all bruised up. The other day Josh took off the training wheels of the little bike and she got on and rode around with no problems. She just had a hard time getting on and off the bigger bike. She is a pro now. Have I mentioned she is getting too big?

I have a graduate!

Cassady and Kaylee with their graduation certificates and cute hats they made.

Cassady and Mrs. Emily

All the preschool kids

Cassady graduated from preschool. I am so sad, she will not get to see her teacher, Miss Emily again. She is moving to Arizona. When I signed her up for preschool, it was only to give her something to do. I was just pregnant with the twins and so sick and I wanted to get her out having some fun. I didn't really care if she learned anything. I got a flyer on my door and signed her up. Kaylee went too and Jodi and I car pooled. It worked out so well. I was so impressed with Miss Emily! She was an awesome teacher and Cassady learned so much. I could not have found a better preschool.

We took this picture and framed it for Mrs. Emily to say thanks for all she did.

Cassady's Dance Recital

Cassady's end of year dance recital was yesterday. She did so good! It is so cute to see her dancing around in her little princess costume. She is such a good little dancer and if you watch she always tells the others what to do. We all went to the recital. Josh took Cass to get there on time. The rest of us were late. Babies had to eat. We just missed her first dance. Thank goodness, she had another dance later in the show. We also went to dinner at Chili's afterwards. The babies were so good. AJ didn't like the loud music, but once I took him out of his car seat and held his ears he was fine. He slept at the restaurant. Addie slept through the recital and woke up and had a bottle at the restaurant. Josh and I just past her back and forth taking turns cutting our food. We can do normal things!

Growing!

Leave me alone I'm growing!

So Big!

We took AJ back to the Dr yesterday. His diaper rash was so bad it was bleeding. We got another ointment. It is working!!!!! His little bum is looking so much better and this one was over the counter and only cost $7. So we spent $50 on creams that didn't work and the $7 one did.
AJ now weighs 8lbs 3oz and Addison wieghs 8lbs 2oz with Jammies and a onesie on. I pulled her out of her car seat this time, but left her clothes on. They are now as big as my other kids at birth.
Way to grow, babies!!!!